LoveLure's Luke and Reid Blog

The end is in sight. A quick look at the spoilers on the RTL site confirms it: the train has come and gone, Carly and Jack are married (again), and the Farewell, ATWT fan event is due to take place this weekend, with the series finale airing on Tuesday, 21st February 2012. And with that, ATWT will cease to be broadcast in Holland.

So, with that in mind, I have sadly taken down the spoiler warning, as there is nothing left to be spoiled. I haven’t had a chance to update in awhile because there has seriously been way too much going on in my personal life, and for that I apologise. But I couldn’t let this momentous occasion go unobserved.

Though I don’t have any new content to offer, I’m going to re-share my “Find My Way Back” fan video, which was created after seeing Martha Byrne and Van Hansis live at last year’s Dutch fan event.

And for anyone who’s wondering, I haven’t forgotten about Simple Gifts, so keep the faith. And comments are always welcome on the Celebrating Luke and Reid, Van and Eric and Reid Oliver Tribute Page.

Thanks for stopping by,

-LL

And for Luke and Reid, and their enduring fans worldwide:

[tubepress video=8-FmokuQ8Bw views=false rating=false description=false title=false]

Okay, first things first – episode promotional stills are out, and Van’s in one! Check out the long hair!

Courtesy of Daemon’s TV:

And here’s the caption: Jane (Simon Baker, right) narrows down the list of suspects after a disgraced clothing designer, on the verge of a come back, is murdered. Also pictured are Griffin Matthews (far left), Van Hasis (center) and Riley Voelkel (near left), on THE MENTALIST, Thursday, Feb. 2 (10:00-11:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network.

So, the good news: Van is not the corpse (which could make for a short-lived role – pun intended). This picture (which doesn’t at all look like Van to me), confirms it:

And more good news: it’s a big enough role to get him featured (and named) in a publicity caption. Woo hoo!

In the meantime, the above photo, plus much of the following information wouldn’t be possible without thanks in advance to the astute tweeter from the fuckyeah Van Hansis! tumblr who thought to ask THE MENTALIST writers for an air date. Thanks also to the folks who posted it at the lure_atwt LiveJournal and to Van’s fan’s who posted it on his Facebook page. And finally, thanks to VanHansis.com who screencapped the twitter conversation . So yeah, basically, I’m the last one to know.

So, rumor has it, that Van will appear on THE MENTALIST on 2nd February 2012 in an episode titled ‘Red Is the New Black.’ I say “leaked” because there’s no official confirmation from the network or the producers, but here’s how word got out:

But then again, we knew that “Van rocks.”

In the meantime, there is widespread confirmation on the internet that the Feb 2nd episode = episode 4×13 = ‘Red is the Next Black.’ There are also reports of this being a “fashion-themed” episode (given the title, that’s not a surprise).

There’s some minor spoilery info

From TheBakerBoy fansite (for series star Simon Baker), comes this tidbit:

The Mentalist Location Info

Filming next week at the upmarket Biltmore Hotel in Downtown LA (4.13 ‘Red is the New Black’ also filmed here) – 4.15 War of the Roses

https://www.millenniumhotels.com/millenniumlosangeles/index.html

And also, an episode synopsis:

The Mentalist 4.13 Red is the New Black

Jane and the CBI narrow down a suspect list as to who killed a disgraced clothing designer on the verge of a comeback. Meanwhile Agent Darcy continues her investigation into finding Red John. Airdate: 2nd February.

More info, including an episode pre-cap, show summary and details on where/how to watch coming up, closer to the air date…

Not sure how I managed to miss this one before, but better late than never!

This video includes recent clips of Van’s work. Some notes:

• It opens with one of his scenes from NIKITA – my personal post-ATWT fave, so I’m glad to see that his representatives (SMS TALENT) felt it was strong enough to lead with.
• The second clips are from his appearances on PSYCH and show a vastly different character (Russian assassin, slightly ditsy haberdashery shop dude – yeah, I’d say they were different)
• Then cuts to a couple of clean-cut, pleasant Danny Hill shots from OCCUPANT
• The final clip is a cut scene from OCCUPANT with him and Cody Horn at dinner – this was an interesting choice to me. With the NIKITA and PSYCH scenes, he showed both a dark side and his ability to play a bit imbalanced, so I would guess that these scenes are there to show his ability to play a romantic lead.
• Also, interesting but not surprising: there is nothing at all of his work from ATWT in this reel. So clearly, his agents feel it’s important to distance him from his “soap star” background. Such a shame given the chemistry he had with his scene partners (yeah, I’m thinking Eric, of course!).

A side note on his NIKITA appearance – I’ve seen a lot of posts on fan sites and Facebook about how “hot” or “gorgeous” Van looks in his scenes. I’ll go on a limb here – I think he looked terrible…and he should have looked terrible after he pummeling he received from the Division.

And I actually think this is a VERY important thing for Van, who is trying to distance himself from any “pretty boy”/“soap hunk” prejudices in Hollywood. Just ask Hillary Swank and Charlize Theron, among other pretty faces who finally got the recognition they deserved and by not being afraid to “play ugly.”

PSYCH and THE MENTALIST: Eerily similar?

Finally, on a lighter note, speaking of PSYCH: I stumbled across a hilarious transcript of a scene from PSYCH on the TVtropes entry for “phony psychic”:

Shawn: You’ve seen The Mentalist, right?

Cop: Yes.

Shawn: It’s like that.

Gus: Except that guy’s a fake.

Shawn: Right. If I were a fake psychic, it would be eerily similar.

Gus: Exactly the same.

Shawn: A virtual carbon copy.

From Psych, "Extradition: British Columbia"

Enjoy!

Luke and Reid storyline is currently on hold in Holland (they’re smack dab in the middle of Van’s OCCUPANT filming hiatus), but there’s a lot going on elsewhere. I think that Trent Dawson’s phenomenal scenes that wrapped up the Henry/Vienna/”Paddy” storyline aired this week.

In the meantime, though, it looks like the Dutch broadcasters of ATWT – RTL – have figured out they had a winner on their hands last year with their “ATWT fandag” (fan day). In contrast to a lot of American soap fan events, which attract hundreds of fans, the Utrecht event filled a theatre to capacity for three showings. (And don’t even ask me how much it frosts my buns that Springfield, Llanview, and Pine Valley all got their own farewell events in the US but Oakdale got diddly).

Last year’s event was fan-initiated, and RTL jumped on bandwagon mid-way through. This year, I believe this is all RTL and they are taking advantage of the fact that this is truly the End by tweaking the format to include watching the final two episodes with former cast members.

The cast looks great: Brad Snyder (Austin Peck), Katie Peretti (Terri Conn), Henry Coleman (Trent Dawson), Lily Snyder (Martha Byrne) en Holden (Jon Hensley).

I was lucky enough to be able to arrange my life to attend last year (when the cast included Martha, plus Paolo Seganti, Marnie Schulenberg, Billy Magnussen, Lucinda Hubbard, and OF COURSE, Van Hansis). I have several writeups that you can see by clicking here. And I can highly recommend the experience.

(I have a few more audio tapes I’m going to transcribe, and some more links to add, in case anyone is still on the fence).

Back in September 2010, Jon Hensley talked very eloquently in interviews about how hard those final scenes were to film, and he alluded to how strange it was to do them with Noelle Beck instead of Martha Byrne. It wasn’t meant to be a knock on Noelle, as Jon has always been very respectful of her in the press, but rather because the writers were trying to bring Holden and Lily’s relationship full circle, and the circle began with Martha. I have to believe watching those final scenes with Jon and Martha there live will have the thousands in the audience bawling (as well as those on stage).

The fact that Martha is the sole guest from both seasons also speaks volumes about her popularity. She’s been off the air for several years now, but she is still Lily to the Dutch fans – and frankly, to many of us here in the US who grew up with her as well. So, good for RTL for recognizing that and giving the people what they want.

The RTL announcement (plus English translation) as well as ticketing information follows the jump…

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