From Zap2It:

I was thinking that the mystery wrapped up too clean and easy with Maria's suicide (or murder??).

I did like that Nikki gave Cliff another chance. They are both just too hot not to be together.

I did like the Tess/Maria showdown (that's a true summer soap staple). I was wishing for some slaps. After all, what's a good chick fight without the slaps.

Wow. So the real murderer really did get away. Wasn't expecting the Maria/Skip twist. Interesting.

I'm glad that Nikki decided to give Cliff another chance. They have great chemistry.

I'll miss this show. It was cheesetastic fun.

I knew that Maria ending was too clean...no real surprise on the true killer, tho I'm glad they did not make it be Cliff. I'm also glad he never went after Jessie Jo or Spats, hehe I was worried about both of them. I did like that Nikki gave him another chance...too bad it ended, but I guess at least we got the Eddie answer.

I'm sad to see this show go, but I'm happy with the ending.

I would have been gutted for the show to end without Cliff and Nikki together. I don't really like how Jessie Jo had a total turn around from last episode, but I guess his reasoning goes along with Nikki's. You don't become an alcoholic without doing some pretty effed up things to people. I love that Nikki's 12 step wisdom allowed the hotness that is Cliff and Nikki to once again emerge. I mean, who the hell could withstand Cliff's full on assault of "I'm sorry"? The man is just to damn hot.

The ending of the mystery is satisfying. I was really annoyed that everyone was congratulating themselves for figuring out Maria killed Eddie with no evidence! Its good that they were wrong. Maria didn't kill her son, but she did have something to do with his death. Next season would have been interesting with trying to catch Skip for the 3 murders he has most likely committed.

I wonder if anything Cliff and Maria said to Cliff's mom about their relationship was true. I could see being poached at an early age by cougar Maria mixed with his propensity to being a mama's boy could lead Cliff to being the delightful sociopath we see today. I kid, I don't actually think Cliff is a sociopath. He seemed truly repentant when trying to win back Nikki.

Well, if you think about it, Cliff was what? Maybe 15 when Maria started messing with him. No matter how, um, precocious Cliff may have been, that's still kind of sick.

I'm really glad that Cliff and Nikki got back together, they had the best chemistry on the show. Although I think Michael Cassidy could have chemistry with a log. Someone give him a job, quick! I need his hotness on my tv!

I was so anrgy when I thought that it would end with Maria as the murderer. For the next ten minutes I was just in anger and regret for watching this show but the ending sort of made up for it as I didn't see Greta's mom coming back and playing a role. When you book someone relatively famous like Kyle Secor, the way only they agree to do it is because they will be the season long big bad or big role. Harry Hamlin/Aaron Echolls anyone? I thought Tess might have been the killer because of her gun thing. I must say though, the promo for the finale was much better than the actual thing.

So did Maria leave a note saying she killed Eddie? Please tell me they didn't just jump to the conclusion that she killed him because she committed suicide.

Otherwise, I thought this was a good finale. I really liked the reveal at the end.

I'll miss Nikki and Cliff...

Yes, they said that Maria had left a note. haha Tho the way they jumped to conclusions on this show, I wouldn't be surprised had your scenario been the case Mia. I'm glad they went with the somewhat less obvious choice of it being Skip, tho he was so smarmy when he appeared on the show that you knew he had to have some issues!

I thought that Liza's realization of dead!Maria was really cool and creepy... I love how out of context the entire promo was. What they made look like a weapon was actually just a shot of Johnny playing with one of Liza's science tools in her garage. And Cliff was awesome, I really liked the rival dynamic they left he and Johnny with. Kyle Secor kept doing this thing that's like a grimace, and it really pisses me off. And I loved Nikki... I think I'm running out of things to say...

i know it's only an hour show (45 minutes without commercials!) but i felt the ending was rushed! i kept thinking to myself "how are they possibly going to wrap up all these ends in ten minutes?" initially, i was disappointed with the ending. we knew it was a possibility for the last three episodes that maria was the killer. no surprise. so i was very pleased to see the actual events unfold on johnny's computer. any chance for a second season?

Well that was obvious. *Yawn* But are we to assume that Johnny turns the evidence over to the police (and thus the show becomes "Hidden Palms: Manhunt"), or that he keeps it to himself in order to spare Greta's feelings?

Speaking of, Greta was mostly pointless, although AH makes for some nice eye candy, which is the real point of a show like this.

Liza is the worst burglar ever.

BTW, I'm so glad no one here decided to give the kids shipper names (at least, not in these episode threads that I've read), not just because I hate shipper names in general, but because they'd be unusually bad if you think about it.

BTW2, for some reason Kyle Secor reminds me of a younger, bloated Peter Coyote.

Haha, no. Thank God.

Man, that was awful, and boring. Oh The CW, will you ever make anything worth watching?

Well, that ending left me wanting more, which is a good thing, I guess, considering the pilot and finale were the only two episodes I caught.

Haha. Yeah, I started thinking that at 8:30, then I kept the "how can they possibly wrap this up in ____ minutes?" for the next half hour.

But I did like the ending. I cared about the mystery, but what really kept my heart pounding in anticipation was Nikki's rejection of Cliff. I really wanted them to be together and I was crushed thinking Nikki wouldn't forgive him. Oh man. I'll totally miss those crazy kids. Plus, Jessie Jo rocked with words of wisdom. His relationship with Nikki was really turning into a father/daughter one. So sad this is the end of it.

I was upset that it was the last episode, but I did feel closure with the whole thing. I did love that the killer got away with it since the show didn't have a chance to pursue the investigation.

Tess/Maria argument was awesome. I loved Tess standing up for her son, and the fact that she really cared that an older woman would mess around with him. She's protective of him and it kind of rocks. She would've liked Nikki. She brought out the best in Cliff.

Johnny/Greta = whatever.

So the kid's been dead for 9 months and people are walking around with incriminating evidence like that on their laptop?

Oookaaaaay.

Overall, I think I'm pleased with the way this summer cheezefest has ended - with answers that satisfied but led to more questions. It does make me wonder if Maria actually did commit suicide because who else would've had/sent Johnny that video? And it makes for the perfect revenge from beyond the grave.

While I was never an emphatic supporter, I wasn't necessarily against Nikki/Cliff. However, even I have to admit that that "Wait... Wait... Kiss me" was extremely hot. But they really did a number on misdirection with Cliff. What was the point of shenanigans like keeping Greta's bloody dress, threatening Liza, not to mention kicking the puppy. Actually, I need to stop thinking about this because I keep coming up with more stuff that makes no sense, like why Liza was so secretive about her relationship with Eddie. Okay... deep breath... letting it all go.

From the weecap:

Hee.

I'm a wee bit confused. If it was murder, wouldn't Skip have taken the laptop then, rather than leave it at the crime scene? If it was suicide, and Maria forwarded the video to Johnny, and there was a note, wouldn't the note have told all, thus incriminating Skip?
What's the use of wonderin'?


Yes! At the beginning they made him quite cryptic, straddling the line between nice guy and full-on psycho, but this episode really showed us his "softer" side. Which was fine. The delayed kiss was quite hot, and I wouldn't be surprised if a few teenage viewers were inspired to attempt acting out similar scenes in basements across the U.S. this summer.

edit: nevermind. watching it online right now.

Maybe I'm blinded by cheese, but I don't think Cliff at the beginning was all misdirection. He's a bored teenager, he's also quite naughty and not exactly a model citizen. He doesn't have to be a stone cold murderer to kick a puppy (he has a head start, though). I mean, he knew there was circumstantial evidence that could be mounted up to a case against him and Greta. Of course he's going to get weird if somebody starts asking questions.

Nikki was important in that sense because Cliff got softer with her, so it didn't come out of the blue. He wasn't as bored anymore, he's charmed and maybe even falling in love with a wild girl that matches his own intensity. There was no need to kick puppies anymore for some high and/or maybe some twisted sense of power.



Cliff didn't turn all good at the end, though. So it was fine that they showed him both shady and heartbroken in the same episode. You can't fully trust him but you can't resist him, either. Cliff is lethal.

Yep, the ending was lame. So not one of the teens we had anything to do with the murder? Or did anything bad at all? Even Cliff -- shady as he is, the worst thing he ever did was kick that dog.

Not that I care. But it would have bothered me if I had sat through a full 22-episode season to get to this point.

There weren't even any real love triangles. Nikki ended up with Cliff, Greta ended up with with Johnny, and Liza ended up with her 12 jobs and her chemistry set. (Frankly, I would have liked to see what Liza had that convinced Eddie to cheat on Greta with her... other than the fact that Greta is the world's most beautiful paperweight.)

Even though the show isn't coming back, I would have liked to see a cliffhanger of a final ending, in which Liza's garage blows up and we have to wonder who was inside. It was bound to happen anyway, given the stuff she keeps in there and the fact that it isn't air-conditioned (or else she wouldn't leave the door half-open all the time). That garage must get up to 200 degrees in the baking desert sun, which would surely make some of those volatile liquids sky-high. We could only hope that, whoever survives, it doesn't mess with their pretty faces!

Whew!

I'm glad I got to post before this whole forum got PH'ed!

-Veronica Mars this show ain't. I liked that they were going for the darkness with Skip and Maria and Eddie's death, but this show wasn't smart enough for the mystery story it was trying to pull off. Greta just had nothing going for her in terms of rootability unlike Nikki and Johnny's chain got yanked too easily (even though I do like the character, just not as the lead). If Skip had been Nikki's father, then I may have given a damn when it was revealed that Skip killed his daughter's boyfriend. As it was, I was just interested in what the plans would be for evil Skip in Season 2 and just what Johnny would've done about this new evidence. I'm also guessing that Johnny would be investigating Greta's mother's death since Eddie accused Skip of killing her to get to his mother.

-This ep did feel a bit rushed and truncated to allow for some closure if it didn't get an additional order of episodes. Lots of fades and staring off in the distance. There needed to be a little more meat.

-Cliff. 'I can cover a lot of ground on charm alone.' Love this BOY. I love him. This character needs to be transplanted to his own show. Let him take him momma and Nikki so he'll be happy, LOL.

-Cliff/Nikki were once again the highlight of this episode for me. When he got that hurt expression on his face after she told him 'She felt nothing for him' that got me. When she came to him at the end and laid it all out of him, I was right with Cliff sitting on the edge of that bed for her to just say the word. I'm a grown ass woman but I squeed when they made up. At least KW gave us Niff/Clikki in the end. Although I agree that Jessie Jo did too big a flip from his hard stance from last week, but I figure that last week he felt Nikki's pain and need was too fresh for her to see things clearly, but now that some time had passed and Cliff hadn't given up and Nikki still had Cliff in her head, that this was more than just some passing fancy for them. I have no doubt that if Cliff messed up with Nikki again, Jessie Jo would have his stilletto heel well up Cliff's butt if he ever saw him again.

-I kinda wished Maria hadn't folded so easily, and just had come out to be a strong, manipulative bitch on wheels. If the woman is disturbed, let her be disturbed! Let her have nothing to lose and be a bitch because she's hurting and hurt the people within her reach. This whole mystery should've been about making Skip pay for what he did and for dropping her so that she was left with no husband, no son, and no lover. Maria should've been slowly setting Skip up for her murder (she committing suicide because she ultimately can't live with what happened to her son, but she's not going to die for nothing-she'll take Skip down with her) and using clueless Cliff, Greta, and Liza as her puppets to diseminate evidence and false stories, each thinking the other had something to do with what was going on. Johnny would've been the icing on the cake, a boy she could sympathize with in losing a loved one, but also the best tool to use to bring Skip down once she learned of his obsession with Eddie and his romance with Greta. In the end anyone and everyone would be dispensible to her as long as she got her revenge on Skip. Can you imagine how psycho Cliff could get if his mom or Nikki got caught in Maria's crossfire?

-Spats lives!



Heh, Lethal is a good word for him. This is why I found him SO much more interesting as a lead character.

Farewell Hidden Palms. I wish you had been a bit better, but you gave me Cliff and Nikki and that's something.

This last episode really had me rooting for Maria as a character. I had pegged her as the murderer, but her scenes were so good that by the half-hour I was hoping it was Skip. If the show had lasted, she probably could have weaseled her way out of that jam with a clever lawyer?


Yes, which reminds me that I've been meaning to recommend a movie from 2005 that has a very similar vibe to HP. Don't let it's bizarre title scare you off. It's called The Chumscrubber, is about disaffected youth in a rich CA development, features a teenage neighbor's suicide and drug addiction, has a really all-star cast with a lot of focus on the clueless parental units. It's worth a watch!

And Tim DeKay was in that movie as well.

This was kinda disappointing. I was hoping the killer would be Jessie Jo or someone who we would never expect.

The Chumscrubber is brilliant. KW would do well to take some notes from that film.

monkipie, I too was thinking along the lines of "the least likely suspect probably did it" (some sort of reverse-Occam's-razor theory?) and was all ready for Jessie Jo to be outed (hmm, maybe not the best verb choice there) as the killer.

Anyone have any theories or suggestions on who/what would have been a more entertaining conclusion?

it's funny how on HP an adult woman having an affair with a teenage boy is considered a pariah, but on DH it's considered quirky and cute!

Hmm... I'm not quite sure if I'm disappointed that this won't be returning or not.

Nice finale, although, I can't say that anything shocked me except that Greta's acting got even worse in this episode. Why must the lead girl always be so awfully whiny and unconvincing in these types of teen dramas?

I felt just the same, surfsup79! After investing so many hours in the mystery, I was hoping for something more thrilling than Maria Nolan taking the blame via suicide. I was tempted to turn off my television and go take a bath with the delicious new cinnamon-scented bath salts that I received as a gift, but it's a good thing I waited to do that! I'd have been smelling of cinnamon and hopping with anger, instead of relatively pleased with this little show's ending, as I was once the episode concluded.

It wasn't the best show, but I appreciated that they wrapped everything up. I do wonder if there was much of a long-term plan for this show. Presumably the mystery would have played out over many more weeks, but then what? The dark mystery element seemed so essential to the show's texture. Would other residents of Palm Springs have dropped dead left and right to facilitate such a thing?

I grew to enjoy most of the characters by the end. Even Greta, though foolish, was recognizable to me! Cliff, however, was my favorite, as seems to be the general opinion of the posters here. Michael Cassidy infused him with such impish charm. I do wonder if we'd have seen any long-term effects from his torrid affair with that deranged and unstable Maria Nolan. I was intrigued to see the aftermath of that play out, as I lost my virginity to an older woman when I was around Cliff's age (though mine was hardly the traditional "MILF"; she was my corpulent piano teacher, which might explain my current predilection for big and brassy older ladies!). He could have grown into a very rich character, with his various relationships and snarky outlook on life. Here's hoping that MC scores a wonderful role on another series!

Last I heard he was casted in Smallville (which I don't watch.) Maybe I'll tape the episodes and watch only MC's scenes. I did something similar when James Marsters guest starred.




Haha, maybe. The show could've done a lot of things to keep the mystery aspect.