Sunday, December 12, 2010

Spoiler Alert: Dexter Season Finale Predictions

So my season predictions three episodes in couldn't have been more wrong. Luckily, I'm fairly certain that no one reads this blog so no harm, no foul.

Anyway, I was going to do my final predictions three episodes before the finale but since I was so off base, I thought I should wait to the last possible minute to gain as much insight as possible. The result: I have absolutely no idea where they're going tonight. That, of course, will not stop me from venturing a guess.

I figure there are three main issues that need to be resolved: 1) what will become of Lumen? 2) how close will Deb and/or Quinn get to finding out Dexter? 3) how close will they come to pinning Liddy's death on Dexter? Let's tackle them one by one, shall we?

What will become of Lumen?


Was Lumen getting kidnapped The Omen that she won't be
back next year? Or did Dexter Save the Last Dance for her?
I know what you're thinking, silly puns are one of 10 Things
I Hate About You
. Thank you, I'll be here all week! 
Dexter has gotten closer to Lumen than any other character we've seen (including Rita). In my mind, that means she has to go. In my first season breakdown, I predicted that Lumen would off herself. It was the only way I could see them getting rid of herself that hadn't really been done yet. Now I'm thinking that she's going to sacrifice herself somehow to save Dexter. Then we'll get your standard final-heartfelt-dialogue-in-each-other's-arms-while-one-dies scenes.

I suppose it's possible that she becomes a main character, but I'm not sure I see that happening. She seems to be the character that Dexter learns something from and then disappears (like the Ice Truck Killer, Lila, Miguel Prado, and Arthur -- interestingly, she would be the first not bad guy on the list).

How close will Deb and/or Quinn get to finding out Dexter?


I really think this year they're going to bring Deb right to the brink of discovery but she's not going to be able to put the pieces together. Of course, the trailer for the finale kind of makes you believe that she's actually going to find out but, come on, they do that every week.

As for Quinn, I really don't think he's going to figure out that Dexter a serial killer, but I do think he's going to have a bad feeling about Dex because of the whole Liddy thing (more on this momentarily).

I wouldn't be surprised if the season ends on a cliffhanger where Deb or Quinn have some sort of evidence against Dexter and we'll have to suffer for a year while we wait for some resolution.

How close will they come to pinning Liddy's death on Dexter?


I'm fairly confident that Quinn is going to have a very strong feeling that Dexter is the one behind Liddy's death. However, because of that whole thing with Deb, he's going to keep it to himself and say that the culprit was a drug dealer that Liddy was spying on (or some other scapegoat).

There's also a possibility of a cliffhanger here where Quinn recovers something from Liddy's hard drive (probably the video of Lumen practicing stabbing -- yes, that was as funny to type as it was to read) and he closes his laptop as Deb walks in and asks him what he was working on. He naturally will say, "Nothing," and we'll get a close-up on his face as we fad to black.

You all owe me $50 if it unfolds like that.

Now that I've written all that, it will be interesting to see how it actually unfolds since I have absolutely no confidence in any of that.

(Note to self: Delete last paragraph if it turns out I was right. Replace with strong statement of confidence and declare self "smartest person to ever grace the blogosphere.")

Monday, December 6, 2010

The E-Dunc Playoff System (EPS)

The current college football postseason appears to have been thought up by a bunch ignorant fools who have never played a down of football in their lives. Being an ignorant fool who has never played a down of football in my life, I too am apparently qualified to make up a college football postseason. So I did. Without further ado, I present the E-Dunc Playoff System or EPS:

Format: 16 teams, 4 weeks, 1 undisputed champ


Seeding
The champion of each of the 11 conferences automatically qualify. The next five highest seeded teams in the BCS rankings are awarded at-large bids. Seeding for the Top 8 follows the BCS rankings regardless of whether or not a team won it's conference. The lower 8 seeds follow the BCS rankings but can be manipulated to avoided conference match-ups in the first round if possible (note: they do this for March Madness).



Venues:
First Round
The Top 8 seeds are given home games.

Second Round
Three of the four games will be played at neutral sites. The fourth will be played at the major bowl (Rose, Fiesta, Orange, Sugar) to hold the National Title game the year before (ex: last year the Rose Bowl hosted the national title game, so they would host the second round game)

Final Four
The two major bowls not hosting the title game this year or the year before.

National Title Game
Rotating yearly among the four major bowls.

Schedule
First Round
Third week of December (except for when Christmas is on a Wednesday or Thursday). One primetime game on Wednesday and Thursday, and the other six games on Saturday (noon, 12:30, 3:30, 4, 7 and 10).

Second Round
 Most years, one primetime game the follow Thursday and three games on Saturday. When Christmas is on a Monday, two games on Saturday, two games on Christmas Day. When Christmas is on a Tuesday, two games on Saturday, one game in primetime on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.

Final Four
New Year's Day.

National Title Game
First Monday or Tuesday a full week after New Year's Day

Following this format, we get this bracket for the 2010 college football postseason:

Automatic Qualifiers
Auburn - SEC Champs, #1 seed
Oregon - Pac10 Champs, #2 seed
TCU - Mountain West Champs, #3 seed
Wisconsin - Big Ten Champs, #5 seed
Oklahoma - Big 12 Champs, #7 seed
Virginia Tech - ACC Champs, #11 seed
Nevada - WAC Champs, #12 seed
UConn - Big East Champs, #13 seed
UCF - CUSA "Champs," #14 seed
Miami (OH) - MAC "Champs," #15 seed
FIU - Sun Belt "Champs," #16 seed

At-Large
Stanford - Pac10, #4 seed
Ohio St. - Big 10, #6 seed
Arkansas - SEC, #8 seed
Michigan St. - Big 10, #9 seed
LSU - SEC, #10 seed
To be fair, though, I spent a good 20 minutes coming up with this system, I'm sure the BCS doesn't have that kind of time to just throw around.