Three big questions were left after last week's penultimate (I love that word) episode of Kyle XY's second season. Where are Kyle and Jessi going? What will they do when they get there? Will they come back? As far as answers go, the season finale gave us two out of three, so I can't complain. My jaw also dropped on two separate occasions so the episode earned some points there too.

Things start off this week with what seems like a change of heart from Emily. She gives Foss a cell phone and a key and tells him to beat it while he can, but of course it was just a means for Ballantine to try to track Kyle. Foss smartly tells Kyle to trash the phone and cryptically says, "You have all you need." Kyle and Jessi are confused for a moment but two incubated heads are better than one and they figure out how to use Baylin's ring to project a map that tells them to find Route 12.

On their way, they stop at a diner - but not just any diner. It's the diner in the photo of Adam Baylin and Jessi's late 70s doppleganger. Lo and behold, inside the diner there's a crazy old man who remembers them, their order (chocolate shake and grilled cheese for him, cherry soda and cobb salad for her), and the song they always played on the jukebox. Of course the record is missing from the jukebox and Route 12 was flooded over years ago, but that doesn't stop our wonder twins. After a small setback where Kyle misses his family and Jessi reads his mind without touching him, they continue on their merry way to who-knows-what.

Our dynamic duo finds Route 12, which is completely overgrown, and after a friendly foot race (and one of my new favorite Kyle-isms: "Where there's a chance, there's hope"), they come upon a deserted cabin. They snoop around for a bit and wind up in the basement at a door with a musical keypad lock. The combination must be "She Could Be You" (the missing song in the jukebox), so who do they know who knows music? Amanda, unfortunately, who is rightly miffed by Kyle hanging with Jessi and not fully explaining herself. Amanda wins Girlfriend of the Year by trusting Kyle and looking up the music for him. Kyle says he hopes to be back in time to say goodbye before Amanda goes off to New York, and I hope so too! They're a little awkward, but I'm pulling for those two.

Once the door is open, Kyle and Jessi wander in to find... Adam Baylin?! This was Jaw Drop Moment #1. Sure, he's in a coma and hooked up to life support, but didn't Kyle scatter his ashes? Kyle decides to do what only Kyle would decide to do - try to get into Adam's brain.

Back at the Tragers, Foss, who had been eavesdropping from a sketchy van outside, enters the picture. Stephen's understandably pissed, but Declan says Foss can be trusted. Declan can't be though, so Lori boots him out. Foss tells Nicole and Stephen that he's known Kyle since he was a child and all Kyle's ever wanted was to be a part of the Trager family. Stephen has a change of heart and tells Foss to go bring their son home. The family agrees to wait until Kyle comes home to ask any more questions, which was my idea in the beginning, so they should have listened to me when I was talking to them through my TV.

Jessi's scared at first, but eventually Kyle gets her to help him access Baylin's thoughts. There's a cool white light and then Adam's voice says, "Kyle stop - she's betrayed you." Jessi immediately bolts and Kyle chases after her. After a pretty bitchin' fight scene, Jessi confesses why she ran: She had accessed Kyle's brain too, and got the information Madacorp had sent her in for. Her last words are, "You shouldn't have trusted me," before she jumps off a cliff into a waterfall. Yep, that was Jaw Drop Moment #2.

Now that I think about it, if Baylin's not dead, then Jessi probably won't be either. But it's still a good set up for next season. The highlights showed Kyle getting ready to tell the Tragers everything, so how will they react? Will they even believe him or will they think his story is too far-fetched? Maybe Stephen will keep his job at Madacorp so he can do some sleuthing for Kyle and Foss. I'd better stop now or else the writers will steal my ideas. Until next season...

This week on Kyle XY, the Trager house was on lockdown and things were gearing up for next week's season finale. The action level was low but there's some exciting stuff set up for the final episode.

Let's start off by naming all the people Lori's pissed at. The top spot on the list belongs to Jessi, who attacked Lori, beat her up, stole her necklace, returned her necklace, made out with Declan, tried to steal Kyle away from Amanda, and other random acts of craziness. Lori decides to exact revenge and employs Josh and Hilary to help her plot.

Old love, on the other hand, isn't having as much luck. Lori's also pissed at Stephen for defending Jessi, which Lori assumes he does because of his affair with Emily. Stephen gives Lori a stern talking to and she backs off, but that doesn't stop Nicole from being a little wary. Stephen gets fed up with the lack of trust in the house and, even though Nicole has ordered a lockdown, goes back to Madacorp to shut down his systems or some other computerspeak I don't really understand. Conveniently enough, Emily, Ballantine, and Taylor are still frying Foss's brain, and Stephen overhears a very interesting conversation. He learns that Foss was a test subject and that Kyle's is the brain they're after.

It wouldn't be Kyle XY if Lori weren't pissed at Declan. They start bickering about something but Hilary orders them to quit it "for the love of Peter Petrelli!" - an exclamation I'm going to try to incorporate into my everyday conversations. Everything works out in the end, with Lori and Declan hugging and making up.

I saved Kyle for last not because Lori's pissed at him and not just because his name is the title of the show, but because his storyline was the most confusing. First he learns that Amanda has been accepted to a music program in New York and she's not sure if she wants to go. Kyle has to put her on the back burner while he has what I can only describe as an intense dream sequence. As an elaborate way of talking to himself to work out what's jumbled in his head, he imagines first that he's talking to Adam Baylin and then Jessi. What it all boils down to is this: He has to go to the woods to find Jessi. He promised himself he'd never put his family at risk, and he has to right his wrong.

Something that struck me during the dream/talking to himself sequence: Kyle ponders how much his family has affected his personality. Since Jessi is clearly bad, is he only good because he found a family? Would he be like her if Nicole had never found him? I wish he would have stayed with that line of thought a little longer because it may have raised the stakes. These people are the reason he is who he is and he has to protect them.

It seems that Kyle's blaming himself for bringing Jessi close to the family, but I'd put the blame on Madacorp - Kyle didn't exactly ask for her to stalk him. Either way, he wants to find Jessi and try to bring down Madacorp. Just when Kyle is on his way to protect his family, Nicole catches him. She tries to keep him from going; she doesn't know what the deal is with Jessi, but more importantly, she says, "I don't even know what you are." Will Kyle ever be able to be completely honest with all the Tragers?

I'm not sure, but Nicole and Stephen are onto him. Leaving their fight aside, they simultaneously tell each other, "I discovered something about Kyle." Hopefully they'll piece together some of the puzzle next week.

Finally, Kyle finds Jessi in the woods, apparently contemplating suicide because she just wants "it to be over." Kyle does too, and ultimately Jessi lets Kyle help her, just as Nicole helped him. Maybe all Jessi needs is a little love to figure out who she really is. Don't we all?

Next week, it's the big season two finale. Where will Kyle and Jessi go? Will Amanda go to New York? Will Josh get to second base? Stay tuned; if it's anything like last season's finale, it's sure to be jam-packed with twists, turns, and maybe a boob or two.

This week, in yet another action-packed episode of Kyle XY, Kyle and Jessi get to know each other a little bit better. They've been sneaking glances and getting strange feelings around each other for a while now. We all know what that's like - you see someone who looks familiar and you think, Hey, wasn't I incubating in the tube next to yours for fifteen years? Happens all the time.

The main action this week took place at a charity event to raise money for cancer research. Speaking of cancer, Andy doesn't want to talk about it and poor Josh doesn't know how to deal with her. I know, Andy's the one with cancer so I should feel sorry for her, but this is the first time Josh has liked a girl for sound reasons ( i.e., non-cup-size-related reasons) and it plain old sucks that she's going through a huge crisis when the two of them should be going out for ice cream and playing video games together.

Over in the land of sunshine and rainbows, a.k.a. Madacorp, Foss is getting his mind melted. Technically, he's getting his memories mapped, which seems innocent enough, until we learn Ballantine is using Foss as a practice for when they pick Kyle's brain. Foss has "an emotional firewall" around certain memories - specifically the car crash in which he killed his wife and daughter. Ballantine figures if they can break Foss, they can break whatever firewall Kyle has up.

Back at the hybrid, Andy finds out about Josh's strategy and calls him out - and outs herself in the process. Andy runs off after she realizes that Josh's actions have made her admit to everyone in the room that she has cancer, and just when you think he's going to do the typical guy thing, Josh leaves the car to go after her. Atta boy! Of course he does come back and ask Kyle to win it for him and Andy - that Josh, always covering all the bases.

I have to admit - the scenes with Kyle and Jessi at the car were a little bit boring for me. The same thing happened in Heroes this season: There were some things that the audience knew but the characters didn't, and it was a little frustrating to watch them figure it out. We know that Kyle and Jessi share a past, so it's kind of uneventful to watch them work through everything when it's already been explained to us. Things do pep up when Kyle helps Jessi remember something she's not supposed to - the day Emily found her in the storage shed. Those memories were supposed to have been erased, so clearly Kyle and Jessi have quite a bit of power when they work together... enough power to cause a minor electrical explosion that blew both of them away from the car.

Through a weird side plot involving Hillary (remember her?) trying to be on a reality show, Lori and Declan wind up going through some DVD footage of school events to get dirt on Jessi. They find her in the background on one of the DVDs, and she's wearing Lori's necklace. Cue Lori Rampage! My favorite line of the show: "As soon as she gets her hand off that car, I'm going to rip it off and bitch-slap her with it!" She kind of jumped to that conclusion - just because Jessi's wearing the necklace doesn't mean she's Lori's attacker - but I love it when Lori gets pissed.

Andy and Josh make nice in the end, with Andy showing her iron-on transfer skills by making "Cancer Girl" and "I'm With Cancer Girl" t-shirts. Things didn't wind up so happily for Kyle and Amanda though. She walked into the First Aid tent just as Kyle and Jessi were discovering the their ultimate similarity - no bellybuttons. Amanda thought things were getting frisky, and when Kyle asked her to "just believe in me," she smartly replied, "That's what Charlie said." Ouch. How are you gonna explain your way out of this one, Kyle?

It doesn't look like things get much better for the not-quite-happy couple next week. Jessi, after surprising Emily by inviting her daughter Paige over for dinner, wants to know who she really is and runs away to find out. Kyle goes after her, leaving many confused Tragers in his wake. There are only two more episodes left and things are definitely getting interesting.

Kyle broke into Zzyzx last week (albeit accidentally), so this week, he decides to switch it up and sneak into Madacorp. We also get a new member of the Scooby Gang - Tom Foss. Kyle makes Foss and Declan work together and Kyle's circle of trust grows wider. It's great to see Kyle be able to talk openly about his secrets to more than one person. That Matt Dallas has one of the cutest furrowed brows I've seen, but it helps to have others to help sort things out.

Stephen has been enjoying his new job at Madacorp, so much so that he brings work home with him - in the form of his big boss Ballantine. Kyle notices that Mr. B is wearing a familiar ring - the ring that used to belong to Baylin, the ring that Kyle pawned to get Amanda's charm bracelet back. Declan sums things up very nicely:

"The man who just happens to be Stephen's boss also just happens to be in possession of a ring - Baylin's ring, that you pawned - a ring that just so happens to be the only way of opening Baylin's box that you happened to dig up out of that underground death trap. What do I think? I think there's no such thing as coincidence."

Well said, Declan. Let's go break into Madacorp!

Kyle decides to celebrate the first annual Take Your Adopted Son Who Was Created in a Lab to Work Day and accompanies Stephen to check out the security situation at Madacorp. Retina scanners, cameras, and secret codes be damned - Kyle figures out a way to beat them all. The next day, after canceling a hot symphony date with Amanda, Kyle puts his plan in motion, with his trusty sidekicks Foss and Declan in tow. Everything goes smoothly with Declan playing angry teen to Foss's tough-guy security guard, and Kyle even has time to get a little sidetracked looking through files on Ballantine's computer marked 781227 and 781228. Hmm, who could 781228 be, Kyle?

Leave it to Lori to mess everything up without even knowing it, though. She had good reason, I'll give her that: After a so-called "business trip" with Emily Hollander, both Lori and Nicole are more than a little suspicious about Stephen's fidelity. Lori comes in to confront her father (who of course denies everything, and I believe him) just as Foss is about to get the ring.

What to do? Well, if you're a super-smart teen genius like Kyle, you simply hold the elevator doors, do a little physics in your head, and shut the doors just as Ballantine sticks his arm in. Voila, the ring is back where it belongs. Getting out of Madacorp becomes the next problem - Foss stays behind to get his butt whooped by some real security guards while Kyle helps a limping Declan escape safely. Later on, Kyle opens Baylin's box to find a photo of what looks like a very groovy version of Kyle and Jessi, but it could be Baylin and a Jessi-lookalike.

Speaking of Jessi, she's catching up to Kyle every week. This week she developed supersonic hearing and was able to break into a safe where Emily hides photos and information about her daughter Paige. Jessi also learned how to draw like Kyle, with the crazy crayon dots, and drew a really scary lion picture for Paige when she met her at a birthday party on the down low. Jessi also drew a picture of the fire for Nicole, and Nicole noticed the Zzyzx symbol peaking through the flames. Someone's gotta figure this out soon.

Next week, it looks like Kyle and Jessi do learn some new things - Amanda walks in on them sharing a special moment touching the areas where their bellybuttons should be. That's not cheating, is it?

When we last left the Kyle XY gang, everyone had just learned a lesson about tolerance - everyone except whoever knocked Lori upside the head in a dark alley after the AlternaDance, that is. Lori was forcing herself to be fine with it, but everyone else was standing guard - Kyle, Stephen, and even Declan decided to care about her well-being for a change. He can be a decent guy when he's not under Jessi's spell.

Speaking of Jessi, someone got a conscience this week! Through a neat trick where she mimicked Nicole's writing, Jessi learned that she lacks empathy, is socially manipulative, and has no remorse. Time to take her back to the lab, which is exactly what Emily does. Jessi gets a tune-up, but not before she learns about empathy and returns the necklace she stole from Lori.

The most interesting thing about Stephen's father is that he seems to be using Kyle to send a message to his son. When Kyle first enters the hospital room, he gets one of those headaches (he always reminds me of a cross between Peter Petrelli on Heroes Harry Potter at these times) and William's brain wave activity goes nuts. Kyle goes home and is compelled to draw one of his cool crayon pictures. It's a church - William's church - only Kyle's never seen it and he never will because it burned down years ago.

The next time Kyle visits William, after some encouragement from Amanda who thinks maybe it's divine intervention, he wakes up the next day in the tub with a wicked crayon hangover and a huge mural of a room on his wall. This time it's William's living room and Kyle's convinced he is meant to deliver a message from father to son.

Back at the hospital one last time, Kyle tells Stephen he keeps seeing the numbers 15 and 11. Stephen recognizes it as Luke chapter 15, verse 11 - the story of the prodigal son. He opens his father's Bible and finds the letter he wrote him all those years ago. William did read it, so Stephen is at peace when William dies later that night. He thanks Kyle for being in their lives, and it's a great moment between the two. Nicole has always seemed to be the most attached to Kyle, so it's nice to see the other characters care about him just as much.

Amanda has been a little down in the dumps with all this talk about dying fathers, so she goes to the park where she used to talk with her dad when he was alive. Kyle goes to talk to her and thanks her for encouraging him to keep at it when he wanted to give up. He realizes that it doesn't matter why or how it happened, just that it did. I smell a kiss coming... and after a cute exchange about mind-reading, there it is! And it was adorable. (If you're counting, the Matt Dallas Cute Factor just skyrocketed.) I think those kids just might make it.

Next week, it looks like the Scooby Gang goes to Madacorp to snoop around and gets in over their heads. You'd think they would have learned from previous Scooby Gangs on Buffy and Veronica Mars, but I guess that's just the Scooby Gang mentality: we can sneak in this place undetected, no one will get hurt, and we'll all be friends afterward. Something tells me at least one of those won't come true.

Last week Josh had (or rather, didn't quite have) his first date. This week, it was Kyle's turn. That's right, the cutest lab-created kid in town finally asked out the girl next door. Actually, Kyle gave Amanda a piano and she asked him out, to the Spring Fling Dance. Of course there were two groundings, a protest, another dance, and a few jealous exes to contend with before these two could have their moment.

Lori and Hilary had some hijinks this week too. Angry at the entire male gender, they decide to go to the dance together but they are denied the couples' ticket price because they're both girls. Start printing up the angry fliers! Andy takes care of this one - she has two moms so the cause is close to her heart. Unfortunately, the extremely close-minded principal catches Lori, Hilary, Kyle, and Amanda hanging up the fliers and bans them all from the dance. Solution: have another dance - an "AlternaDance" as Lori calls it - at the same time as the Fling, invite anyone who wants to come, and charge half the ticket price.

Lori isn't all about good deeds this week though. She notices Jessi being extra friendly with Declan, so she does what all smart girls do - she decides to be friends with her. Keep your enemies close, as they say. Nicole is uncomfortable with Lori getting close with one of her clients, but when Jessi tells Lori that "My mom's crazy and my dad couldn't handle it," Lori genuinely feels for her so Nicole eases up. Meanwhile, Emily is being extremely strict with Jessi after she catches her making out with Declan. I'm not sure if she reacted that way specifically because it was Declan or if she doesn't want Jessi getting close to anybody at all. Doesn't really make sense because she was all over Stephen at Madacorp to have Lori befriend Jessi. Wouldn't she want Jessi to be close with someone who has a relationship with the Tragers? I'm not sure about Emily's strategy here. Also, whenever she scolds Jessi, Jessi gets headaches and the lights flicker. Hmm, where have we seen that before?

Speaking of Kyle, he and Jessi finally met in this episode and it wasn't as mind-blowing as I thought it would be. She wanders into his room and sits in the tub. He wanders in and asks her why she's in his tub. They have a feeling that they've met before, but that's it. He's also intrigued by how she fixed Josh's car radio but nothing really comes of it. I guess I was expecting an explosion or a wrinkle in time or something when these two were finally alone together. It's probably more interesting this way though - we can see how their relationship develops if Kyle digs a little deeper.

Kyle's got other things to worry about though: he doesn't know how to dance. Good thing Josh has some moves to spare and gives Kyle a lesson. Yes, the Matt Dallas cute-factor skyrocketed in this scene. The head bob and that dorky arm motion just melted my heart.

I've said before that this show pushes the boundaries more than I would expect by being honest about teen drinking and sex, and it did itself one better tonight. Truly earning its TV-14 rating, Lori and Hilary kiss for the sole purpose of freaking Charlie out. Charlie's a loser so I'm glad they messed with him, even though it was a little gratuitous.

Much to Kyle's dismay, Amanda is the second person to get grounded. Her mom was out of town but came back early when she found out about the fliers and refused to let Amanda go to the dance. Luckily for Kyle, she's able to sneak out just in time to see Kyle and Josh's choreographed dance routine. So cute - in an entirely manly way, of course. Kyle and Amanda finally get their moment and are thisclose to kissing, but of course Emily has to ruin it by trying to yank Jessi out of the dance. Emily seriously needs to chill out when they're around other people; she should be smarter than to make people suspicious of their situation.

Even though Kyle and Amanda don't get their kiss, we do have a happy ending of sorts. Declan and Kyle finally talk and Kyle wants to trust Declan with his secrets again. Declan is game because he's scared about Foss too (remember the pictures he left in Declan's car?). Good thing these two teamed up, because Lori gets knocked out by an unseen prowler in the alley when she's taking out the trash. I have a feeling someone other than Declan is going to learn Kyle's secrets next week.

It was all about seeing the future this week on Kyle XY. Actually, he thought it was the future but it was really the past. And the main message was to take advantage of what you have in the present. Unless you're Declan, in which case the lesson was: you're a moron.

Things got off to a good start when, at the coffee house listening to Josh drone on about his upcoming first date, Kyle has a vision of a fishbowl, a postcard and the urn containing Adam Baylin's ashes. Then Jessi walks in and their powers combined to cause an earthquake. Or at least an earthquake coincidentally happened when they were in the same room. Kyle isn't concerned with the earthquake though. He has some future predicting to get to.

Foss gets all mad when Kyle slips and tells him he talked to Nicole. That Matt Dallas (who plays Kyle) sure looks cute when he's all worried and furrowing his brow. Foss, in that angry, forceful voice of his that I love so much, says, "I am the only one that you can trust." Seriously man, take a chill pill.

Kyle notices a piano laying around near the warehouse. Hey, you know who had to sell her piano so she and her mom could make ends meet? Amanda! Wonder what will happen to that piano by the end of the episode...

I haven't commented too much on her yet, but I really don't like Jessi so far. I think it's hard because we've obviously known Kyle for longer, and we got to watch him learn and grow all last season. Jessi's clueless like Kyle was, but she's clueless in a potentially evil way, not in a cute way. Kissing Declan at the open mic night was seriously not cool, but she'd been watching old romance movies all day and her brain is an easily programmed computer, so I guess it's understandable. Declan's a moron for going along with it though. Maybe one of Jessi's powers is mind control.

Poor Josh has been getting some pretty dull C stories the past couple weeks. Last week it was smoking pot; this week it's his first date. And what do you know, his platonic yet perfectly compatible friend Andy (who is only slightly less annoying this week) is coaching him. He ends up getting stood up by his biology partner with the nice rack and spends the evening with Andy instead. I saw that one coming a mile away. I did like "the tap" anecdote from Stephen and it was cute when the camera panned down to show Josh's foot shaking uncontrollably when he was talking to Andy.

Speaking of Stephen, he has his first day at Madacorp and Emily shamelessly flirts with him. Apparently feminine wiles run in the family, even though Jessi and Emily aren't really related.

Kyle takes a tip from Amanda and listens to some music to try to figure out his visions. Turns out they weren't visions of the future, they were Kyle's own memories and he can stop, rewind, and move freely within them. He sees Adam Baylin put a CD in a book - a book that Kyle saw at the warehouse. He goes to get it but it's unintelligible until he figures out to listen to it underwater. He hears Baylin telling him he has a holographic memory (coool) and that all the answers are right in front of him. Kyle and I ask the same thing: "Why all that work for such a simple message?"

It's open mic night and Lori's getting ready to sing a sad song about how Declan ruined her life. It was a surprisingly okay song and I think the actress who plays Lori actually might have been singing on the track, so good for her. Kyle ogles Amanda as she works the sound board and figures out the rest of Adam's puzzle.

Through some manner I don't understand, Kyle realizes that the letters in the Hungarian phrase correspond to numbers in the sound waves of the CD, like a code. In a scene not unlike "Be sure to drink your Ovaltine" in A Christmas Story, Kyle decodes the message: DON'T TRUST FOSS.

Holy crap! Kyle goes to the warehouse and there's no sign of Foss or any of Baylin's research. As far as surprises in the last few minutes of TV shows go, that was right up there with some moments from Heroes this year.

So what does this mean? Kyle had started to trust Foss, but now he's left with no one for the billionth time. Foss was the only one who knew the whole story about Kyle's origins, so who will he talk to now? Will he bring Declan back into it, so he can have some more interesting storylines besides falling under Jessi's spell? Maybe he can tell Josh some secrets so he doesn't have a drunk driving storyline next week to complete the after-school trilogy of drugs, sex and drinking. You know who he should tell? Lori. She's just been moping over Declan lately and I really like her relationship with Kyle. I'd love to see her reaction to the truth about his past.

Next week, things get a little lighter when Kyle goes on a date with Amanda (finally!). And he learns how to dance. I think the Matt Dallas Cute Factor will skyrocket.

Take some Veronica Mars, add a little CSI and a touch of after-school special, and you've got this week's episode of Kyle XY. Just say no to drugs, but just say yes to pawning your most meaningful possession to get a girl to like you.

Kyle's senses come into play the next day when Jessi has her first session with Nicole. I love the moments when these two can sense each other; I hope they keep up the tension for a couple more episodes before they finally meet. Jessi does have her first run-in with Declan as he's leaving the house after his awkward break-up stuff-exchange with Lori. They linger a little too long at the front door, causing me to call Declan a creep and Lori to get a little suspicious.

Kyle and Amanda run into each other at the police station where Amanda's waiting to look at a lineup of possible suspects. Neither she nor Kyle got a good look at the guy, but Kyle recognizes him by his heartbeat. Of course he can't tell the cops that, because he'll blow his cover and also, they'll think he's nuts. He vows to get the bracelet back so he can gain back Amanda's affections. Anybody else smell a spin-off here? Kyle uses his powers to figure out who committed a crime but then has to prove it using normal logic. Kinda like in Legally Blonde when Reese Witherspoon had to prove that Ali Larter didn't kill her husband without telling everyone she was getting liposuction. I like it.

Meanwhile, Stephen finds out that Josh has been smoking pot. Not just any pot - Stephen and Nicole's "secret stash" of pot. This is where things got a little after-school special-y. Stephen confronted Josh but Josh threw it back at him with the tried and true "you do it so why can't I" argument. Eventually Stephen decides that what you do is just as important as what you say and makes a pact with Josh: I won't smoke up if you don't. Ahh, the precious moments between father and son.

Using his brainpower and a computer, Kyle figures out which house in the neighborhood the burglar is likely to strike next. Lori accompanies him on the stakeout and they succeed in catching the guy, who turns out to be a crystal meth addict but says he didn't steal the bracelet. They figure he must have sold the bracelet for drug money, so Lori and Kyle visit pawn shop after pawn shop until they find it. Only the burglar didn't sell it; Amanda's mother did. What?

Kyle trades the ring Adam Baylin gave him for the bracelet and he's faced with yet another dilemma: He knows the truth but it wouldn't really get him back on Amanda's good side if he told her her mother was the one who stole the bracelet. Fortunately, her mom comes clean and Amanda has a nice moment in the bathtub with Kyle when she tries to give him money to get his ring back. She says she wasn't mad at Kyle for the Charlie business; she was mad at herself, which is something I could have told her two weeks ago. My roommate and I yelled, "Kiss her!" six or seven times during this scene, but of course it's better that he didn't.

Kyle goes to the pawn shop to reclaim his ring but it's been sold... to Ballantine, the evil head of Madacorp! Worse yet - Ballantine has just offered Stephen a job, and he accepted! As if Jessi weren't bad enough, now Madacorp will have even more access to the Trager household. Looks like life won't be all Sour Patch Kids and comfy bathtubs for much longer.

Plenty of drama in the Trager household this week. Josh got his driver's license and was promised a new car for his birthday, but his father lost his job and didn't want to tell the kids. Lori was still moping over Declan and decided to try to find herself with the help of a guitar. Amanda was unnecessarily mad at Kyle for not telling her about Charlie's man-whorish ways, and plus, Tom Foss would not back off on that "realizing your potential" stuff. What's a starry-eyed savant to do?

Next on the list of People Who Were Upset With Kyle This Week was Josh. He was psyched for his birthday and his new car, which he said would benefit both of their social lives. Kyle kept flaking on plans with Josh to train with Tom Foss, but of course he couldn't tell Josh that. Kyle won him over (do we see a trend here?) by finding a junk car in Foss's sketchy warehouse for Stephen to give Josh for his birthday. I thought it was very touching when Josh referred to Kyle as his best friend - Josh is such a smart-ass most of the time that it's nice to see him show some emotion every now and then. Side note: Why can't Kyle learn to drive? Maybe he can't get a license, given that whole artificially-created-in-a-lab, no-documentation-of-his-birth thing.

Tom Foss (for some reason I have to write his full name every time) was still putting pressure on Kyle to strengthen his body so it could keep up with his mind. Foss is so overbearing, it's hard to have sympathy for him, until we learned that his wife and daughter were killed in a drunk driving accident - and he was the drunk driver. Also, he was in the military doing rescue and torture missions, so that explains his hard edge with Kyle. That combination weight lifting/balance/math drill was killer, but the rock climbing lessons helped Kyle respond when he needed to, when Foss was hanging for an excruciatingly long time from his finger tips on the climbing wall. Kyle offering to help Foss was an important moment as well - he's clearly a lonely guy and doesn't have the benefit of a family like Kyle does.

...A family that will confront you when you're acting like a jackass. I liked that the Tragers called Kyle out on his behavior, but I wish he could tell them the real reason he's been MIA. Declan involved himself this time (why did he feel the need to burden himself with more secrets about Kyle by following him?) and it might have scary consequences: In his car, he found photos taken of him sneaking around by the warehouse, with an ominous post-it note on a picture of Lori. "Back off if you care about her" - but will his feelings for her trump his curiosity?

In case you were wondering, yes, I am ignoring Andy, the new character that was introduced last week. She seems a little convenient and obvious as a love interest for Josh, so I'm just waiting until she does something more interesting than busting his chops at the coffee house...although that "the kind of girl who appreciates potential" line was pretty good at the end. She needs to interact with Kyle in some way; I didn't like Declan last season until he got involved in Kyle's storylines.

Finally, Emily Hollander "accidentally" bumped into Nicole on the street. Through a series of lies, she convinced Nicole to take Jessi on as a patient. Next week, Jessi is in the house - the Trager house, that is - and Declan seems interested. That's a great way to get back on Lori's good side: Make eyes at her foster brother's secret twin sister. Works every time.

Here's thing number 234890723 I love about Kyle XY: It's a family show with a lesson of the week in each episode, but the lesson is always applied to the characters in real, believable ways. This week's lesson: Figure out who you are and go with it. We saw our main man Kyle as well as Lori, Hilary, Nicole, and Charlie get schooled in the ways of personal destiny. Even though we were inundated with lines like, "What if I don't want to change the world?" and "Maybe I should stop running from it" and "I want to be ordinary," I didn't feel like anything was too heavy-handed. In each character's storyline, the lesson made perfect sense.

I have to hand it to ABC Family: these teenage characters talk about sex and virginity in a frank but not embarrassing way, kinda like how real kids talk about sex and virginity. (7th Heaven, take note.) Things like underage drinking and sex are a part of this show, but they're not used to prove a moral point. It seems like the writers have accepted these "bad" behaviors as parts of normal teenagers' lives, and that's very refreshing to see. After all, if all the students at Beachwood were straight-edge virgins, Kyle wouldn't be the only extraordinary thing in that town.

Oh Charlie. You seemed like such a nice guy midway through last season, but nooooo, you had to be screwing around on that sweetheart Amanda. As horrible as it was for her to find out the truth in the way she did (Charlie was voted Class Slut), she probably would have been pretty pissed at Kyle if he had been the one to tell her. Let's face it - she wouldn't have believed him if he didn't have proof. Props to Hilary for owning up to her mistake even though it meant sacrificing her stab at a new reputation.

Poor Lori. She wanted to make it work with Declan, and I'm sure he did too, but he's stuck with Kyle's secrets so she ends up alone. They were voted Class Couple, but in this case, the list lied. I loved Lori's speech during her drunken stumble up the stairs. If only all parents could be that tolerant of their intoxicated teenagers.

Nicole was still being mopey about her relationship with Kyle. She was hesitant to go back to work because of how close she got to Kyle and how distraught she was when he was taken away. Understandable, but you can't bake cupcakes and buy Sour Patch Kids all day everyday. Fortunately for the Tragers' dental health, she realized she was a good therapist and decided to return to work.

Kyle had the biggest identity problem out of everyone, as per usual. Tom Foss was being all sorts of pushy, demanding that Kyle work with him to hone his abilities. Kyle longed to just be normal and ordinary. But how can you be ordinary when you are inherently extraordinary? It's impossible, which is why Kyle, after saving a skanky girl from a fire and emerging unscathed, finally decided to embrace his destiny.

Speaking of identities, I'd like to introduce you to Jessi Hollander, formerly known as subject 781228. Ballantine (that's the creepy Madacorp guy) gave XX an identity: she's Emily Hollander's sister and she loves strawberry ice cream and Avril Lavigne (doesn't everybody?). Apparently giving a pod-incubated human a new identity is as easy as downloading iTunes onto your computer. Ballantine also figured out that Kyle has the equivalent of a firewall around his mind, and Jessi's the only one who might be able to access it. They certainly got close - that scene with Kyle and Jessi across the bonfire from each other was pretty spooky - but Kyle is safe from Madacorp for the time being.

Questions for next week: Will Amanda conveniently fall into Kyle's genetically perfect arms? Will Josh get closer to the truth? Will Tom Foss ease up a little, for crying out loud? That guy needs to take a major chill pill; I think he suffers from genetic experiment envy. But after this week's requisite shirtless Kyle scene, don't we all?

Secrets, lies, and a naked girl covered in goo. What more could you ask from an episode of Kyle XY? This week, the main focus shifted between Kyle's return to the Tragers (and the lies he had to tell to get there) and the adventures of Kyle's counterpart, XX. And can you believe Kyle has a cell phone now? He sure has progressed from the "Juice me!" Kyle from last season.

The last episode left off with Kyle reuniting with the Tragers, and that's where we started this week. Quickly after they exchanged greetings, Brian Taylor (Adam Baylin's BFF who is still giving off a creepy vibe) knocked on the door, posing as a lawyer. He told Kyle and the Tragers that the Petersons (Kyle's "parents") had died in a car accident and they left Kyle in the Tragers' custody. Perfect! Now Kyle can legally become a part of the family and they can all live happily ever after!

Not so fast.

Another question, another lie. Kyle was mad enough about the lie about the Petersons, but Taylor made up another one: Kyle was abducted by Adam Baylin because Kyle looked so much like Baylin's son who had died. Baylin treated Kyle well and raised him as his own, but then Baylin died and Kyle was traumatized - thus explaining the whole naked-and-alone-in-the-woods thing. (I'd have asked about the pink goo, but maybe that's just me.) All the lies put a great deal of pressure on Kyle, who just wants to be honest with the family he loves.

At the very least, he wants to be honest with Declan, the only one who knew an inkling of the truth about Kyle. Declan has been weighed down by keeping Kyle's secret, falling into what Lori calls a "gunk" - a guy funk. Kyle asks what a girl funk would be called and Josh, ever the smart-ass little brother, replies, "Redundant." Kyle runs into Declan and refuses to tell him anything more and then meets with Foss, who has taken over a warehouse to store Baylin's equipment and notes. Foss wants to continue experimenting with Kyle's abilities. In a very Peter-Petrelli-from-Heroes-esque move, Kyle gets overloaded with all the lies and secrets and mentally breaks the glass in the skylight. I can't wait until he gets a handle on that mind control thing; it should have some interesting results.

Of course in the end the Tragers, still believing the whole kidnapping story, agree to become Kyle's guardians. Kyle also asks to have his name legally changed from Noah to Kyle, and later when we see his cell phone calling "Home", I'm sure there was a collective "Awww" from the viewing audience.

In a much less heartwarming storyline, XX kills a guy in the woods then wanders around the park wearing his oversized flannel shirt, creeping people out left and right. There's a nice moment with an old man where she touches the wrinkles on his face, but the most interesting point is when she sees Kyle running across the other side of the park, on his way to see Foss. Kyle slows down as well, sensing her presence. It was a curious moment - do these two have some kind of mental connection? I wonder how long it will be before they cross paths.

Eventually, XX is found and tranquilized by Emily Hollander, an agent hired by Madacorp (Zzyzx was one of its research facilities) to find XX. XX had done some drawings in the storage unit, in the same style as Kyle's, and among the images from her visit to the park was Kyle's face. Madacorp thought subject 781227 had been terminated, so now Hollander has a new mission: find Kyle.

I was nervous after the season premiere, when we got so many answers, that we'd be left with nothing new to learn. Clearly, I was mistaken. What did Hollander do in Iraq that made her prepared to deal with XX? When will Kyle tell Declan his secrets (you know he's going to)? What other abilities does Kyle have? Why do I still get a creepy vibe from Brian Taylor? And probably the most important question - what will Madacorp do with XX? Since she's in their possession and not out on her own like Kyle was, I'm nervous that she won't have that innocent look on her face much longer.

I just met Kyle XY on Sunday and I think we're going to be best friends. After spending about eight hours watching the Kyle XY marathon on ABC Family and then watching the season two premiere last night, you'd think I'd be spent, but I just can't get enough of this blue-eyed superhuman and his quest to find out who he is and where he came from.

Conveniently enough, those two questions were answered within the first ten minutes of last night's premiere.

Phew. Anyone else's brain fried right now? It was a ton of information, and I had to watch it a couple times to get everything straight. But there's more: Kyle's head was spinning as well. According to Adam, Kyle is the first "subject" to survive outside the chamber. Kyle takes offense to the term "subject" and later attacks Adam with questions, the most important one being, "Why did you create me?" Turns out Adam didn't want to be alone. There was no one with a mind or a body like his, so he wanted to create some. After Adam gets shot and killed by a Xyxx sniper, Kyle decides he doesn't want to be alone either and convinces Tom Foss to return him to the Tragers. Of course, that happened after Tom Foss planted a bomb in Xyxx which exploded but didn't manage to destroy female subject 781228, who was left wandering naked in the woods, covered in pink goo. Sounds familiar.

So much happened, and I haven't even talked about the Tragers yet. Basically, they were all mopey about Kyle's absence, especially Nicole. She wasn't cooking dinner, she was obsessed with hearing news from Kyle, and she even ignored the fact that Josh threw a party while she and Stephen were away for the weekend. Josh knocked some sense back into her and things were returning to normal just as Kyle walked in the door. I'm glad Kyle returned because I really like the Tragers. They easily could have been one-dimensional characters – the rebellious teenage daughter, the smart-mouthed younger son – but I really came to care about them over the course of the first season. Nicole's relationship with Kyle is especially interesting, so I'm excited to see what happens with them as Kyle starts perfecting his abilities.

Compared to the earlier episodes last season, which were rather formulaic in a "Kyle learns about lying" or "Kyle learns about sleeping" way, this premiere was chock full of action and information, but there are still a bunch of questions: How did Kyle wind up in the woods and why was he the first to survive outside the chamber? Why did Adam and Kyle look so much alike? What is the stiff British woman planning for subject 781228? Why do I get a creepy, potential bad-guy vibe from Brian Taylor? I was a little overwhelmed this week, so I hope the action is tempered with more lighthearted stories in later episodes, but so far, we're off to a great start.

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