"Persons Unknown" Finale Liveblog

I've been following the NBC summer mystery series "Persons Unknown," all throughout its run, despite the erratic scheduling and meandering plot. I'm all caught up with the latest episodes, including the one that premiered online, and I'm ready for the two-hour finale tonight. As I expected from the first episode, this has turned out to be a pretty pedestrian show with the usual shadowy conspiracy organization responsible for everything. Still, it has a lot of actors I like and it's fun for summer TV.

I'll be liveblogging the last episodes as they air. I'm hoping for some surprises tonight.

8:00 - Thanks to the ballgame, looks like the first half will be airing on one NBC affiliate, and the second half on another.

8:03 - Liam, the replacement night watchman is having a nice little crisis of faith. His superior may be the least sinister supervillain lady ever.

8:05 - The Chinese restaurant is empty. Not such a horrible shock. If they'd been *closed* on a business day that would have been a reason to panic.

8:10 - A "Battle Royale" ending? They have to be teasing us.

8:12 - Janet's a much more tolerable character when every other line out of her mouth isn't about her daughter.

8:14 - The contact's name is Sherman Golightly. Only on television.

8:17 - Did Liam just explode? Looks like they cut something.

8:21 - Mark and Kat meet one of the guys who match the thumb they smuggled back into the country last week. I wonder what the viewers who didn't see the online episode think.

8:24 - Charlie and Bill's relationship is *way* more fun to speculate about than Graham and Moira's or Janet and Joe's. Of course, there's Erika and Janet...

8:25 - Of the heterosexual couplings, I go for Mark and Kat. At least they're functional.

8:26 - Ha! I've been waiting for Erika to do that since the episode where she first showed up.

8:28 - Charlie does not take Bill's removal well. Aw, no big epic, bromatic goodbye.

8:32 - Charlie looks the way I do when my heater's broken.

8:33 - Mark, Kat, stop bullying the docent. And what are they supposed to accomplish with all the taunting? I know the reaction of the Program directors is just supposed to be exposition, but it's so matter-of-fact, it's *hysterical.*

8:34 - Down goes Charlie. Somehow I don't think anyone has actually died yet. The manner of the deaths is way too ambiguous.

8:41 - And now Erika goes for the rebound with Moira. Wait, no time for romance - Moira's snapped. Wow!

8:44 - The new technicolor writing in Moira's room doesn't match the older, more orderly scribblings. Planted, maybe?

8:45 - Oh, I don't think Graham's walking away from that one. And then there were three.

8:51 - Down to two. And, alarm klaxons signal the arrival of - "Doctor Who" CGI effects!

8:53 - Watching Joe and Janet angst, now I'm a little pissed off that they demonized Moira in the end. She got to be a badass, but *still.*

8:54 - Joe reveals he's well and truly drunk the Kool-Aid. And now his nuzzling with Janet's just kinda creepy.

8:56 - Madame Director and Nick Fury arrive just in time to be utterly useless.

8:58 - Yay! Nobody's dead! And they also faked the lesbian kissing. Awww. But I take back everything about them demonizing Moira.

Back in a flash. Need to change the channel.

"Persons Unknown" Finale Liveblog II

Continued from the previous post:

9:00 - Oh crud, the Giants game is still pre-empting the finale on the San Francisco NBC affiliate. I'll be back as soon as this ends.

9:11 - Delay wasn't long at all. We're back in business!

9:12 - Mark and Janet backstory! Would have helped to see this a couple episodes earlier, but boy is it obvious why they didn't work out.

9:19 - Paco Ortiz! I mean, Carlos Lacamara as the clueless detective! Looks like this is going to be a coda episode rather than a big showdown finale.

9:22 - Erika and Moira are in Morocco. Erika rocks a headscarf. Moira does not.

9:24 - Charlie and Bill re-enact "Thelma and Louise," while Mark and Kat try to hitch-hike. Just leaves Graham and Joe unaccounted for.

9:28 - How old is this Fry's Electronics ad?

9:29 - Well Charlie and Bill didn't get far. Maybe Janet will have better luck re-enacting "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest." Oh wait, that one didn't end so well, did it?

9:32 - Aw, I really do like Lola Glaudini and Gerald Kyd in this.

9:33 - Kudos to the fact that Janet looks like hell as she's making her escape. Nobody should ever leave a hospital looking remotely normal.

9:38 - Has Janet been caught? Did she make this tape while still in the hospital before escaping? Oh, maybe this is faked to help the Program get into Joe's head.

9:39 - Heh.

9:42 - Of course Janet goes straight to Megan. And then, another commercial break. That was weirdly quick.

9:47 - Lucius Malfoy?! My god, it's Robert Picardo! He and Madame Director have an ominous exchange.

9:50 - And lest we forget, Janet's mother is in the pocket of the Project. Oh wait, we have a heel-face-turn. Yay!

9:52 - Kat meets Tori's father in one of those scary imprisonment scenarios that "The X-Files" used to do so well. Where's Mark?

9:56 - They've got Graham in the interrogation room where Joe was a few episodes back. Amnesia forthcoming maybe? Or are they setting him up as the next season's big bad? And how does Madame Director get around so fast, or are they just playing fast and loose with the timeline?

9:58 - Bill just slipped up. Looks like only the female characters actually got away, or in Janet's case are getting away.

10:01 - "I love you Mommy" is the first thing that comes out of the kid's mouth when she wakes up? Something is wrong with this girl. Super secret Project operative, maybe?

10:02 - And back where we started. Good use of music here.

10:05 - Joe, Janet, Moira, Erika, Charlie, Graham, Bill - gang's all here plus Mark and Kat and some new faces, but they're split up in different towns.

10:08 - Tori's the new night manager for Joe, Janet, Mark & Kat's group.

10:09 - The rest of our familiar cast is on "Level 2," a cargo ship heading out into stormy waters with Nick Fury.

Aw, I wish there was going to be a second season, but if NBC's scheduling insanity is any indication, the ratings are rocky and this is the end of the line. The finale did not disappoint, though I liked the first hour better than the second.

I'll be back tomorrow to liveblog the Emmys with Jimmy Fallon.