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The TV IV:IVy Awards/2006/Best Individual Episode of a Drama Series

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Candidates to be considered the Best Individual Episode of a Drama Series which first aired in the United States between June 1, 2005 and May 31, 2006. Please read carefully the Definitions and Guidelines before putting a candidate up for nomination.

Definitions

drama
Any live-action (non-animated), scripted (non-documentary, talk or news) episodic (airing on a recurring basis), non-limited series categorized as a Drama on the TV IV. In the case of shows which are categorized as both Comedy and Drama (and only in those cases), the show will be categorized on the basis of runtime: Less than 40 minutes should be considered a Comedy, 40 minutes or more should be considered a Drama.
individual episode
Any episode of an episodic series listed as a single episode on the TV IV, or a multi-part episode. (Example: The Star Trek: The Next Generation episodes "Encounter at Farpoint (1)" and "Encounter at Farpoint (2)" should be treated as one episode, provided both halves aired within the eligibility period.)

Guidelines

Please feel free to propose as many or as few candidates as you like in each category. If you change your mind or wish to retract a candidate, don't worry about editing the page, as it could cause some confusion down the road. (If you propose one unworthy enough, it will most likely not make it past the nominating process, anyway.) Feel free to discuss yours or others' proposals as much or as little as you choose. Tell us why you feel a candidate should be considered, or why someone else's candidate is a horrible choice and should not be considered. (Just remember to follow standard TV IV discussion rules regarding civility.)

Please mark all proposed candidates in bold, and link the show titles, even if the linked articles are empty or stubs. Try to avoid using bold elsewhere in the discussion. (To mark a candidate in bold, surround the name with two sets of three apostrophes, and use double brackets for linking, '''[[like this]]'''.) Please also indicate the series to make it easier for us to track. (e.g.: "Jaynestown, Firefly.)

Candidates Discussion

  • Believe, Rescue Me (2x08): In a season which would end with the utter emotional destruction of almost all the main characters in the series, "Believe" is a crucial point, as it is the episode which ends with them all in a point of supreme happiness. Yet even this happiness is painful to watch, as it is so clearly built on tenuous and shaky circumstances. The series has a special skill at making even comedy seem like tragedy, and nowhere is that better demonstrated than in this episode.
  • Dave, Lost (2x18): This series has always been good at maintaining its mysteries, but I can honestly say, although I loved the show, I didn't get into them as fanatically as many on this site until this episode. This episode, frankly, blew my mind, all the more so because I knew its revelations had to be a lie, and yet they fit everything so perfectly. Truly an example of this series at its best.
  • Day 5: 6:00AM - 7:00AM, 24 (5x24): A few weeks before this episode aired, I had the pleasure of meeting Glenn Morshower (Agent Aaron Pierce). I told him how much I enjoy the show, and he told me the season finale would "blow [you] away." He wasn't kiddin'. This may well be the most heart-pounding, thrilling yet tragic episode of the series since Season Two's atomic bomb explosion.
  • The Long Con, Lost (2x13): Another stand-out of the second season, Sawyer's tale of love lost shows some of the humanity behind his bad-boy character, and the rogue behind his antihero.
  • No Reason, House, M.D. (2x24): The series can never hope to repeat the mind-bending time-space distortions of its classic 1x21 - Three Stories, but it makes the wise decision of not trying to repeat them. In this episode, it warps the fabric of reality itself to give a rare, raw look into House's psyche. The "dream episode" plot device has been used before on dozens of series (including The Sopranos this season), but rarely has it told us so much and yet so little about the dreamer's subconscious.

JCaesar 02:39, 2 June 2006 (EDT)

  • Live Together, Die Alone, Lost (2x23): The climax to the tensions and mysteries that have been bubbling up all season long, this episode is epic in scope, revealing much of the island never seen before. There are many surprising twists and turns. The final scenes in the Swan bunker are both andrenaline pumping and emotionally moving. Some mysteries are solved, but many new ones show up to lead the way into the third season.--Stabbey 13:46, 2 June 2006 (EDT)
  • Go, Prison Break (1x21): What many consider the real season finale, this is the episode when they finally break out. All of Michael's plans come to a head and they make it over the wall in the final seconds. An incredibly tense episode made more so by the fact that Westmoreland is dying from a guard inflicted wound forcing their escape plan in motion. They run into a few issues and your never quite certain if they're going to make it or not. The last scene is a shot down the wall in which the escapees are no where to be seen. On top of all the prison stuff the conspiracy story has some intense action involving a double and then triple crossing followed by the death of one character.
  • Mommy's Bosses, The 4400 (2x13): This episode had all the perfect elements of a season finale, it tied up a lot of the plot threads from the season and answered a number of mysteries. It tied the first and second seasons together nicely and left just enough things unanswered to keep the story going. That alone would have made the finale great but then in the final minutes they had a series of not one or two but five or six cliffhangers built perfectly off the events of the episode and the season. It left you satisfied with the resolved plots but intensely wanting to see where they take the show next.
I support this nomination. The 4400 has tendancy of having several episodes where nothing happens to the overall story arc in then having one episode that explodes with developments and the cycle repeats. This season finale was definitely the latter, and so many things where introduced at once. Not only Isabelle's sudden emergence as a grown women, but also Jordan Collier's completely unexpected return from the grave. Just when it looked like the series could last one more season tops the season two finale completely changed that by opening up a lot of avenues for exploration. --MateoP 00:18, 8 June 2006 (EDT)
  • It's the End of the World and (As We Know It), Grey's Anatomy (2x16&2x17): This was a decently rated show before these episodes but a lot of that could be attributed to the powerful lead-in it received. Then after the first of these episodes aired out of the Super Bowl Grey's beat it's lead-in nearly every week and among the advertiser coveted 18-49's became the highest rated scripted show on TV. It's not often a network can capitalize on the Super Bowl as well as ABC did with this show and these two superbly plotted highly dramatic episodes. The set of episodes drew the post Super Bowl first time viewers into the show and introduced them to all the varied and nuanced characters while still giving all the existing fans the kind of long term character developments they'd come to expect.

--The-jam 15:15, 2 June 2006 (EDT)

  • All Alone, Six Feet Under (5x10): The saddest episode of any show I've ever seen. I was weeping openly the entire time I watched the episode, and with good reason.
  • Everyone's Waiting, Six Feet Under (5x12): An incredible series finale, with perhaps the most brilliant and perfect ending I could think of for a show to have. Great conclusion to 5 great years of television.

--Boco_T 02:09, 4 June 2006 (EDT)

--NeoRaven

  • Cold Stones, The Sopranos (6x11): This episode had everything that makes The Sopranos great: visuals, violence, humor. Easily the best episode of the second half of the season, probably the whole.

--discstickers

  • The Spoils, Rome (1x11): This episode contains all the elements that make this show great: political machinations, secret murders, clandestine relationships, the odd friendship of the two leads who once again find themselves tangled up in the middle of important events in Roman history. It also includes what is probably the most violent scene ever produced for television but it is by no means gratuitous the scene is a wonderful character building scene for the two leads that cements their often rocky friendship for all times. It's a gladiator battle better and more graphic than any thing seen in the movie Gladiator and plays a key role in the season arc. Watching Caesar struggle against his desire to pardon his loyal ally for fear it would tie him too much to the murder hurting his political standing was touching. Especially when you later learn that he was the one who commissioned the murders in the first place. Lucius constant struggle between what is best for his family and coming to the aide of his friend who had recently betrayed him comes to a thrilling and fitting conclusion in the gladiator ring.
  • Hijack/Youmud Din, Sleeper Cell (1x09/1x10): The two hour finale transformed this show from a cerebral drama into a full fledged action thriller but still managed to tie all the drama plots up nicely without the action sequences seeming too contrived like on many other shows. They kept the tension up really high despite the fact that we had to see both sides of the attack by the very nature of the show. This was helped by the fact that the show made you really feel for most of the terrorists making the outcome a tragedy no matter what happened. Tommy's futile last stand and the final confrontation between Sayeed and Farik were especially poignant. It tied all the plotlines up but left just enough open for a second season which is an ideal finale.

--The-jam 14:13, 7 June 2006 (EDT)

  • Ain't No Magic Mountain High Enough, Veronica Mars (2x13): I'm surprised this trio of Veronica Mars episodes haven't been nominated yet. This first episode is classic Veronica Mars, and really does harken to the old season one days of incredible character development taking place within the short timespan of 42 minutes. This episode feels almost overwhelming at times with the amount of characterization going on, which serves as a really nice juxtaposition of the relatively carefree setting of the episode.
  • The Rapes of Graff, Veronica Mars (2x16): Please name another show that would be ballsy enough to introduce an arc 13 or so episodes into the future and well into its third season by reintroducing characters that disappeared 13 episodes back. The Rapes of Graff sets up the third season really well, and while it's now common knowledge that the Hearst Rapist will not take up the entire third season but merely a third of it, it's still an extremely compelling episode that gives Veronica Marss future location a little more validity.
I agree with this nomination. It's one of my favorite S2 episodes and love how it sets up some characters that we could meet again when S3 starts and the location that the show will take place in during the season. It also brought back a character from S1 that I liked and made for an interesting plot in the episode. I don't know of any show that has introduced an arc that would happen in the future this far ahead of when the next season would begin and make it interesting enough to want to see it solved when the new season starts. --HuskersRule 18:52, 13 June 2006 (EDT)
  • Not Pictured, Veronica Mars (2x22): And then the season finale. Many people saw it coming, but I chalk it up to good detective work by them and not some form of faulty editing of the killer. And of course, those brilliant referbacks to Veronica's rape, an aspect of the episode that I'm sure no one was at all expecting. Brilliant concept with an excellent execution.

--Wizardryo\talk 23:53, 7 June 2006 (EDT)

Disagree and agree. I thought it was a somewhat weak season finale because it was pretty obvious by the 3rd to last episode or so, but more because the killer was so over-the-toply evil as to be difficult to believe. But it was still pretty good and overall there weren't very many good season finales this year so this is definitely one of the better ones. But probably not one of the better individual episodes of this entire cycle. --MateoP 00:13, 8 June 2006 (EDT)
I realize a portion of the last episode was spent trying to make the villain look as evil as possible, but there were still considerable signs. Look at the character suddenly appearing at the slumber party in Nobody Puts Baby in a Corner, for example. It was a very quick take, but the character showed up, and in hindsight what may seem as a throwaway scene turns out to be a pretty good case of foreshadowing. I do agree with you, however, that it did not live up to the season one reveal. That doesn't make it inherently bad, however, especially, like you said, relative to the other season finales. --Wizardryo\talk 02:50, 13 June 2006 (EDT)
I was glad that someone put the S2 finale on this list as I would've, but I couldn't figure out what to say about it as it was so great. I thought it was the best episode of Veronica Mars to date and a very good season finale(even better than the S1 finale in my opinion). I did figure out who was the killer before this episode, mainly due to other people's comments on message boards, but I still loved what they did on the episode and didn't mind the over-the-top evilness. The one thing that I did not expect was the referbacks to Veronica's rape and that was gutsy for the writers to do, but I loved it. They pulled it off brilliantly and it added to an already great scene. This is definitely deserving of an nomination in the Best Individual Episode of a Drama Series category and possibly a win. --HuskersRule 18:52, 13 June 2006 (EDT)
  • Lay Down Your Burdens (1)/Lay Down Your Burdens (2), Battlestar Galactica (2003) (2x19/2x20): Great TV can surprise you. Great TV should occasionally make you think, "I can't believe they went there!" Well, this season finale went there and came back with souvenirs. Cool ones, like non-cheesy t-shirts and real glass (not plastic) snow globes. And uh, I'm only saying that because I don't want to spoil it.
Ugh, I have to absolutely disagree with this one. What a way to ruin a bunch of solid plotstrings in seconds. I thought that season "2.5" of Battlestar Galactica was an endless pile of shit, with the only actual good episodes being Resurrection Ship and Downloaded. In fact I'm going to go ahead and nominate Downloaded, Battlestar Galactica (2003) (2x18), even if the show went ahead and trashed everything this episode created in an instant. Or maybe the buildup is still going to be viable in season 3, all I know is that I'm going to have a hard time trying to care about this show after that season finale. Maybe if I were to rewatch all of the series in short-order I'd have a bigger opinion of most of season 2.5, but as it stands I was really disappointed in the show overall this year.--Boco_T 01:58, 16 June 2006 (EDT)
  • Ripple Effect, Stargate SG-1 (9x13): It's an episode that manages to draw deeply from nine years of SG-1 continuity and yet be completely accessible to someone who has never seen the show, is a great episode. At least that's what my friend (that does not watch the show) said, after watching it only because I mentioned it had alternate realities. It's also really, really funny and snarky and even surprising. -- Lampbane 23:26, 15 June 2006 (EDT)
  • Brother's Keeper, Prison Break (1x16): The "origin story," as it were, of all the character's on the series, Brother's Keeper relied on our previous understanding of the characters, but also introduced shocking new facts about their past lives, the way good flashback episodes should. It even made T-Bag seem sympathetic and set up the shocking tragedy of Dr. Sara.
  • The Mistake, House, M.D. (2x08): House, M.D.s driving thematic motif has always been the line between truth and lies, but in this episode, the "liars" are two main characters—House and Chase—and the show writers cleverly leave the detective work to us, the audience. The episode is also a clever referback to a Season One episode (1x13 - Cursed) and manages to make Chase, for the first time in a season and a half, seem both interesting and sympathetic.
  • The Other 48 Days, Lost (2x07): The perfect companion piece to the Pilot, "The Other 48 Days" does what all the best episodes of the series do: It sets up new mysteries (the Others), it introduces new twists to the characters, and it tells us who they are and how they got here. This episode also manages to introduce a new anti-hero into the story, Ana-Lucia, which makes her fate this season all the more shocking. JCaesar 22:44, 26 June 2006 (EDT)
I totally second the nom for The Other 48 Days; edge-of-your-seat television, even knowing how it was going to end! --Davidscarter 22:48, 26 June 2006 (EDT)
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