document_title: Jennifer Jareau

question_text: when does jj find out she's pregnant

question_tokens: when does jj find out she 's pregnant

text: Jennifer Jareau

text: Character background[edit]

text: During various episodes, Jareau has described growing up in a small town near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. When she was eleven, her seventeen-year-old sister Rosaline committed suicide[1] by cutting.[2] Rosaline's death was a particularly painful topic for her and she initially chose not to tell her young son about Rosaline, until her mother Sandy reminded her that avoidance was not the solution to dealing with the pain. A high school athlete, Jareau graduated valedictorian[3] from East Allegheny High School, where she was the captain of the varsity soccer team her senior year and earned an athletic scholarship to the University of Pittsburgh. She also attended Georgetown, presumably for graduate studies.

text: JJ decided to join the FBI after attending a book reading by BAU founder and then-Unit Chief Agent David Rossi. She once told Rossi that she had not known what to do with her life until she listened to his reading, which was held in the campus bookstore during her senior year in college. The next fall, she applied to the FBI Academy.

text: Storylines[edit]

text: In the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit (BAU), JJ acted as the team's liaison with the media and local police agencies.[4] Though talented and helpful, she was not actually a profiler, having once declined Unit Chief Aaron Hotchner's suggestion to take the necessary classes in behavioral analysis.[5] She works mostly out of the confines of the police stations and field offices the team visits. However, she does accompany the team on raids, and is proficient with firearms. This is made particularly clear when JJ resolves a hostage situation inside the BAU by killing the hostage-taker, Jason Clark Battle, with a single shot (Battle is a serial perpetrator of hero homicide, who lured Technical Analyst Penelope Garcia onto a date, and then shot her, in an attempt to keep his crimes from being discovered). During season six, JJ is given a promotion to the Pentagon; however, she returns in season seven as a full-time profiler, having received the necessary training. In season 9 ("200"), she is then kidnapped, and it is revealed that her year as the DOD Liaison at the Pentagon was a cover story. It turns out she was on a task force in Afghanistan, in search for Bin Laden. The team saves her, and in season 10, it is revealed she has PTSD, and hasn't been dealing with her ordeal being tortured when she was kidnapped, as well as 2 main events that happened when she was in Afghanistan, one of which includes her having a miscarriage, after a convoy was attacked. She tries to work through it with the help of Reid, who calls her on it when she disappears into the morgue one day, for almost a half-hour, after seeing herself on the table, in place of the victim.

text: Promotion to Pentagon and brief return[edit]

text: It is revealed in "JJ", that JJ had twice rejected a promotion to The Pentagon and hid the offers from her superiors. However, she is finally forced to transfer by "the brass".[6] JJ's departure reflects that Cook was let go at the beginning of season six, for financial reasons relating to the premiere of the spin-off Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior.[7] JJ's time at the Pentagon was revealed in depth in season nine.

text: Cook later returned for the departure of Paget Brewster (Agent Emily Prentiss).[8] In the episode titled "Lauren", JJ receives a call and returns to help the BAU find Emily and capture Ian Doyle. The episode ends with Emily presumed dead after being stabbed with a broken chair leg in the stomach. It is later revealed that Emily is alive and in Paris with JJ's help, providing her passports from three different countries and a bank account in each "to keep her comfortable". In the season six finale, JJ returns in order to tell David Rossi that she is "coming back".

text: In "200", it was revealed that JJ's transfer was a backstop and that she was actually put on a task force in the Middle East with Mateo Cruz (who later became the section chief of the BAU following Strauss's death). During this time, she witnessed a mission she had pushed for fail and discovered one of the task force's informants dead. In February 2011, while overseas, she discovered that she was pregnant. However, in April 2011, following the events of "Lauren", during an attack on the task force, she was wounded and miscarried the baby. She didn't initially tell Will of the pregnancy, and it remained a secret between her and Cruz. In "The Forever People", when she starts showing signs of PTSD, Reid calls her on it, and he tries to help her and talk to her. She eventually admits she had a miscarriage due to the attack on her convoy, and asks him to keep it between them.

text: Return to the BAU[edit]

text: The season seven premiere reveals that JJ has returned to the Behavioral Analysis Unit, having received the training to become a full-time profiler, instead of the Media Liaison, a position which has been split between Hotch and Garcia.

text: She is initially against summoning Prentiss "back from the dead," but Hotch insists on telling the team the truth. Also, she learns Reid is emotionally hurt by her deception, as she knew he cried for ten weeks after losing Prentiss and she never said a word, and Reid revealed he considered taking Dilaudid again.

text: In season nine, the events during her departure in 2010–11 returned when Mateo Cruz was promoted to Section Chief. In "The Road Home", while waiting to meet Cruz, she is suddenly kidnapped. In "200", it is revealed that she was kidnapped by a man named Tivon Askari, who was a traitor in the task force, in order to access files from her mission in the Middle East. She was held hostage alongside Cruz and was tortured into giving up the code. She discovered that Askari was not working alone when he mentioned her miscarriage, revealing the true enemy to be Michael Hastings, a man she worked with on the task force. He threatened to rape JJ in order to get Cruz to give up his access code. She is rescued by Hotch and Prentiss, and she proceeds to chase after Hastings. Prentiss accompanies her and they both take on Hastings, resulting in Hastings falling off a roof to his death. JJ is left traumatized by the situation and promises to stop the lies and give only the truth.

text: A year after her kidnapping and torture, she starts experiencing PTSD, something that Reid notices. When she is confronted by him, she asks him to provide a term to describe her situation, saying that it's more than PTSD. She breaks down and reveals the source of her PTSD to be Tivon Askari and reveals her miscarriage to Reid. She later takes an extremely large risk against an UnSub in a room with a gas leak, which could have resulted the deaths of herself, the UnSub, and a hostage. Reid approaches her in the BAU to tell her that while he couldn't find a term to describe JJ's condition, he called Emily and managed to obtain Askari's file, revealing his background of his life on the streets of Tikrit, Iraq, and his criminal background. JJ unknowingly hallucinates Askari in the room with her. He taunts her and tells her that he wants to watch her kill herself. He also tells her that he will take her sleep, her smile, and her safety away, as well as change her so that her husband and son won't even recognise her. He explains that the memories will eventually take away everything she holds dear, but JJ snarls a harsh "No" to Askari before realizing it was all a hallucination.

text: Relationships and family[edit]

text: Prior to her courtship and marriage to Will, JJ displayed little interest in dating. She once went on a date with Spencer Reid to a Washington Redskins game, but little came of it romantically, although the two became very good friends. In the season 2 episode "Jones", JJ first meets William "Will" LaMontagne, Jr. a NOPD detective whom the team worked with while in New Orleans after a serial killer presumed dead following Hurricane Katrina resurfaces. It is revealed the following season that he and JJ had been seeing each other for the past year but kept it a secret as she wanted to keep her personal life away from the prying eyes of her colleagues, which Will initially misunderstood as her being ashamed of their relationship.[9] When she finally reveals their relationship by kissing him goodbye in her office with the blinds open, it is apparent that her colleagues already knew about them.

text: In "The Crossing",[10] JJ told Will that she was pregnant with his child. He later asked her to marry him, and indicated that he was willing to give up his detective's shield in order to help take care of the baby and allow JJ to continue to do her job, though he was worried about her safety and the safety of their child.[11] JJ later told Hotch she had found a temporary replacement for the duration of her maternity leave,[12] and soon after gave birth to a baby boy named Henry. Will transfers to the MPDC, and the family live together in Washington.[13] In later seasons, toddler Henry is portrayed by actress A. J. Cook's real-life son Mekhai Andersen. JJ and Will named Reid and Technical Analyst Penelope Garcia as Henry's godparents. When JJ returned from maternity leave, she and Will had exchanged rings with Henry's birthstone, but did not seem to be officially engaged, as she wore her ring on her right hand, not the left. In the season seven finale, JJ tearfully asked Will to propose to her again, and they married the following evening in a small ceremony in David Rossi's backyard.

text: Characterization[edit]

text: JJ is very loyal to her family and friends, as well as very protective. She is also known to be a crack shot. This was demonstrated in many episodes such as "Nanny Dearest" by shooting a fleeing suspect in the head at a faraway distance. In "Revelations", she killed numerous flesh eating dogs in a dark barn. In "Penelope", she kills Garcia's attacker by shooting him directly between the eyes precisely as he turns around to find JJ behind him. Despite her petite frame, she is very athletic and has shown herself to be able to hold her own even if disarmed. In the season 7 finale, she manages to physically fight off a stronger and taller suspect who had tried to kill Will and took their son Henry hostage. She is best friends with Spencer (and is the only one who calls him "Spence"), Penelope, and Emily.

text: Fears and obsessions[edit]

text: In "The Boogeyman", JJ reveals that she is afraid of the woods. When agents Derek Morgan and Dr. Spencer Reid ask her why, she tells them a chilling story about working as a summer camp counselor and discovering her boss's murdered body in his cabin. After telling the story, she admits she was joking, and says she doesn't know why she is afraid of the woods. In the same episode, JJ also states that she has a niece who, at the time, is about 8 years old.

text: When she and Reid unexpectedly came across serial killer Tobias Hankel in the episode "The Big Game", and split up to apprehend the suspect, JJ walked into a dark barn and was attacked by several attack dogs. Although JJ shot and killed the dogs, saving her own life, Reid was abducted by Hankel in the meantime, and would later be tortured and almost killed by Hankel before the BAU team was able to rescue him. After this traumatic experience, it appears that JJ developed a fear of dogs.

text: In the episode "Penelope", it's announced that JJ has never shot someone until she shot the man who had attempted to kill, and who continued to threaten the life of, Penelope Garcia.

text: She also seems to have a slight obsession with Cheetos. She can be seen eating them often, and it was implied that her online Scrabble handle was "Cheeto-breath" when she was playing Emily (who was hiding in Paris at the time).

text: In "Mr. Scratch", JJ tells Hotch that her worst fear as a child was being separated from her parents.


document_title: Damon Salvatore

question_text: when does damon and elena finally get together

root

text: Damon Salvatore

text: Character development[edit]

text: Casting[edit]

text: Ian Somerhalder was cast as Damon Salvatore at the end of March 2009, six months before the premiere of the series.[1] The initial casting call for the character required an actor in his early- to mid-twenties to play a "darkly handsome, strong, charming, and smug vampire who can go from casual and playful to pure evil in less than a heartbeat."[2] Somerhalder had not read the books until filming began.[3]

tag: p

text: Television series[edit]

text: Background[edit]

text: Damon Salvatore is a vampire, turned by Katherine Pierce 145 years prior to the series' debut. He is the son of late Giuseppe Salvatore, ripper Lily Salvatore and older brother of Stefan Salvatore. He is portrayed as a charming, handsome and snarky person who loves tricking humans, and takes pleasure in feeding on them and killing them during the early episodes of the first season, unlike his brother, Stefan.

text: Season 1[edit]

text: In the first season, Damon appears as the frightening older brother to Stefan Salvatore, and plays as the main antagonist for the first initial episodes with a hidden agenda.[4] Slowly, Damon begins to be kinder to the other characters, showing brief moments of compassion such as erasing Jeremy's memory of vampires and removing his "suffering"[4] so Jeremy gets his life back on track.[5] Damon apologizes for turning Vicki Donovan into a vampire and admits it was wrong.[6] Later at the Gilbert house, Elena returns home. Damon admits that he came to the town wanting to destroy it but actually found himself wanting to protect it after everything that happened at the Founder's Day celebrations and says he's not a hero and doesn't do good, saying it's not in him - those traits are reserved for Stefan, Elena and Bonnie. The two begin to kiss passionately before getting interrupted - it is later revealed that it wasn't Elena he kissed, but Katherine Pierce.[6] Later in the season, it also implies that he actually feels human emotions, such as pain and love, which helps the viewer sympathize toward his character in some situations. But mostly, he likes to take care of himself and do the dirty work, in his own sadistic ways.

text: Season 2[edit]

text: In season two, Katherine tells Damon that she never loved him and that it was always Stefan. Elena says something similar later, leaving Damon heartbroken. As an expression of his anger, pain, and hopelessness, he snaps Jeremy Gilbert's neck, not realizing he is wearing a ring which reverses damage done by supernatural creatures or forces. Jeremy survives because of the ring, but Damon's action incurs Elena's wrath and pain. When Bonnie also discovers it was his blood that enabled Caroline Forbes to become a vampire, the two declare their hatred for him, leaving angrier than ever.[7] After saving Elena with Stefan in episode 8 of season 2, Damon shows up in Elena's room with the vervain necklace that was ripped from her neck earlier in the episode. Before he gives it back, he tells Elena that he is in love with her, and because he is in love with her, he cannot be selfish with her. He also states that he doesn't deserve her, but that his brother does. He kisses her forehead and says he wishes she could remember this, but she can't. As the camera shows a close up of Damon's eye as he is compelling Elena to forget, a tear slips. Elena blinks and her vervain necklace is back around her neck, Damon is gone and her window is open with the curtains blowing. She had no recollection as to how the necklace was returned to her. In one episode, Damon joins Rose to find out why the originals are after Elena; after some time and clever banter, the two have sex, stating that they could rid themselves of emotion. However, when Rose, Damon's old friend who turned Katerina, suffers from a werewolf bite, he gives her the memory of her life prior to becoming a vampire, and helps her remember how good it felt to be able to wall and feel the sunlight, without it burning her. During this meaningful moment, Damon mercifully kills her, leaving him to mourn the death of his one of very few friends. Elena and Damon then begin to mend fences, and Elena gives him an affectionate hug to help comfort him after Rose's death. Damon begins showing another side of himself in small acts that help build what once was an impossible friendship between Elena and himself, after she clearly stated that he has lost her forever. After he spares Caroline's mother, Elena says how that was the person she was once friends with. And it's hard for Damon to accept that he has to change to have her in his life, which he explains to Andy Star, his compelled girlfriend a few more episodes in. Damon is bitten by Tyler the werewolf at the end of the season. Elena takes care of him, and right before he is cured by the blood of Klaus, the original hybrid, she gives him a "goodbye" kiss, because she was sure he was going to die. She even forgives him, telling him that she cares for him through grief-stricken tears.

text: Season 3[edit]

text: In the third season, Damon helps Elena in bringing his brother, Stefan, back to Mystic Falls after Stefan becomes Klaus' henchman. The arrangement transpired after a bargain for his blood that would cure Damon of the werewolf bite he had received from Tyler. At first, he is reluctant to involve Elena in the rescue attempts, employing Alaric Saltzman, Elena's guardian, instead as Klaus does not know that Elena is alive after the sacrifice which frees Klaus' hybrid side. However, Elena involves herself, desperate to find Stefan. Damon, though hesitant at first, is unable to refuse her because of his love for her. He also points out to her that she once turned back from finding Stefan since she knew Damon would be in danger, clearly showing that she also has feelings for him. He tells her that "when (he) drag(s) (his) brother from the edge to deliver him back to (her), (he) wants her to remember the things (she) felt while he was gone." When Stefan finally returns to Mystic Falls, his attitude is different from that of the first and second seasons. This causes a rift between Elena and Stefan whereas the relationship between Damon and Elena becomes closer and more intimate. A still loyal Elena, however, refuses to admit her feelings for Damon. In 'Dangerous Liaisons', Elena, frustrated with her feelings for him, tells Damon that his love for her may be a problem, and that this could be causing all their troubles. This incenses Damon, causing him to revert to the uncaring and reckless Damon seen in the previous seasons. The rocky relationship between the two continues until the sexual tension hits the fan and in a moment of heated passion, Elena – for the first time in the three seasons – kisses Damon of her own accord. This kiss finally causes Elena to admit that she loves both brothers and realize that she must ultimately make her choice as her own ancestress, Katherine Pierce, who turned the brothers, once did. In assessment of her feelings for Damon, she states this: "Damon just sort of snuck up on me. He got under my skin and no matter what I do, I can't shake him." In the season finale, a trip designed to get her to safety forces Elena to make her choice: to go to Damon and possibly see him one last time; or to go to Stefan and her friends and see them one last time. She chooses the latter when she calls Damon to tell him her decision. Damon, who is trying to stop Alaric, accepts what she says and she tells him that maybe if she had met Damon before she had met Stefan, her choice may have been different. This statement causes Damon to remember the first night he did meet Elena which was, in fact, the night her parents died - before she had met Stefan. Not wanting anyone to know he was in town and after giving her some advice about life and love, Damon compels her to forget. He remembers this as he fights Alaric and seems accepting of his death when Alaric, whose life line is tied to Elena's, suddenly collapses in his arms. Damon is grief-stricken, knowing that this means that Elena has also died and yells, "No! You are not dead!" A heartbroken Damon then goes to the hospital demanding to see Elena when the doctor, Meredith Fell, tells him that she gave Elena vampire blood. The last shot of the season finale episode shows Elena in transition.

text: Season 4[edit]

text: Damon starts season 4 at Elena's bedside after finding out about her dying with vampire blood in her system, causing her to start the transition to Vampire. Damon decides to firstly try to kill Rebekah with a White Oak Stake, yet she overpowers him. Rebekah is shot at through the Window and Damon escapes.

text: Later in part of a plan with the Sheriff and Meredith Fell, Damon uses Matt as bait to draw out the deputies and Pastor Young. After dispatching the deputies, Damon decides to take out some aggression on Matt and is about to snap his neck when stopped by the new vampire Elena. After Elena and Stefan go hunting on animals the next morning and Elena has her first feed on a deer she pukes the blood out. Meanwhile, it seems a new vampire hunter is in town. Elena goes to Damon for help, he pulls her with him to the bathroom and makes her drink his blood because he says "You need warm blood from the vein, so maybe this'll do the trick." He says it's personal and Elena wonders why but no answer was given. She drinks his blood but pukes hours later. When Stefan finds out Damon has feed Elena his blood he's very angry and hits Damon who just got in a fight with the vampire hunter.

text: Damon has decided to leave town, but through the early episodes of Season 4 seems to be looking for reasons to stay. Meredith Fell seems to be one who convinces him in 'The Rager' to stay to help Elena with her transition to Vampire. Indeed, a renewed conflict over ideology and what sort of Vampire Elena will become drives Damon and Stefan apart.

text: The Five, shows Damon tasking Stefan with learning more about the Vampire Hunter, Connor while Damon decides to accompany both Bonnie and Elena to College. This trip is ostensibly about teaching Elena the 'hunt': how to catch, feed and erase. After some initial problems, Elena has a Frat Party gets success and seems to enjoy herself causing friction with Bonnie. She leaves the party and later states that she doesn't want to be like Damon. In the next episode, she begins to believe that Stefan is lying to her and takes things into her own hands to kill the vampire hunter who is holding her brother, Matt, and April captive. She does, and begins to suffer from hallucinations at the end of the episode. After asking Stefan why he wants to cure Elena, Damon tells him that he loves Elena as a vampire or human.

text: In the episode 'We All Go a Little Mad Sometimes', Damon helps Elena in dealing with her hallucinations and saves her from committing suicide. He also helps uncover the mystery about the hunter's curse with the help of Bonnie and Professor Shane. At the end of the episode, he reveals the truth about the cure to Elena and explains how Stefan has been lying to her only to find this possible cure for vampirism. However, Elena breaks up with Stefan at the end of the episode after confessing her gradually growing feelings for Damon.

text: In the following episode "My Brother's Keeper", Elena tells Damon he is the reason she and Stefan broke up and at the end of the episode Damon and Elena finally have sex. After that it turns out Elena is sired with Damon, first they think it is the reason why Elena loves Damon, but in episode "We'll Always Have Bourbon Street" they found out that it only affects how you act, not how you feel. The sire-bond can only be broken when Damon leaves Elena and tells her to stop caring about him according to a witch in New Orleans named Nandi. In the following episode Damon goes with Elena to her family's lake house to help with Jeremy's Hunter instincts. In the episode Elena tries to act like a couple with Damon, but he refuses to even kiss her out of his guilt about the sire bond and worry that he's taking advantage of her. In the end of the episode Damon invokes the sire bond telling Elena to return to Mystic Falls while he trains Jeremy "O Come, All Ye Faithful". Elena kisses him goodbye.

text: In 'After School Special', Damon is at the Lake House training Jeremy, along with Matt Donovan. Klaus shows up and threatens Damon, wanting him to get Jeremy's mark completed earlier rather than later. Damon is shown to be reluctant, not wanting to hurt innocents for Elena's sake, but Klaus follows through with his plans regardless. Later in the episode Elena calls Damon and confesses she's in love with him and it's the 'most real thing she's ever felt in her entire life', in a moment of weakness Damon tells her to come see him. Afterward Damon is confronted with a bar of newly turned vampires for Jeremy to kill concedes that it's the quickest way, however balks when Klaus takes control and compels the newly turned vamps to kill Matt Donovan. In Catch Me If You Can Damon tells the boys to run since Jeremy isn't ready to take on all these vampires. Later when Elena arrives her and Damon argue over the killing of innocents and tells her to take Matt home while he and Jeremy take care of Klaus's newly turned vampires. However Kol shows up and has killed all the vampires, determined to stop them from finding the cure & waking Silas, and threatens Jeremy's life. Kol compels Damon to stake himself and later to kill Jeremy and to forget what Kol compelled him to do. Upon arriving back in Mystic Falls Damon begins to seek out Jeremy due to the compulsion, however when he sees him in the grill he realizes what Kol compelled him to do and tells Jeremy to run. Damon chases Jeremy throughout Mystic Falls and advises Jeremy that he is compelled and he needs to kill him. Jeremy shoots Damon in the head and when Damon awakens later starts cursing the youngest Gilbert, calling him stupid for not killing him. At the end of the episode Damon catches up with Jeremy Elena follows and urges Damon to fight it because "You love me and I love you", but he tells her that he can't, falls to his knees and urges Jeremy to kill him. Stefan shows up just in time to break Damon's neck and lock him up until they can take care of Kol. Damon spends the next episode locked up and bled dry by a jealous and snarky Stefan and engages in a conversation with Klaus about Caroline, Rebekah and Elena.

text: When the group goes to the mysterious island to find the Cure, Damon continues to be suspicious of Professor Shane. When Jeremy goes missing and Bonnie and Shane stay behind to try a locator spell, Damon stays to keep an eye on Shane. He later begins torturing Shane for information, but Shane starts analyzing Damon and telling him Elena will go back to Stefan once she's cured. Elena interrupts the torture session and Damon storms out and Elena follows. She tells Damon that she's sure her feelings for him are real and asks him to become human with her, however Damon tells her he has no desire to be human and that human/vampire relationships are doomed and stalks off. Afterward he is captured by Vaughn, another member of the Five, who tortures Damon and leads him around with a noose around his neck. Damon goes with Vaughn to the cavern close to where Silas is buried and eventually overpowers him, but not before Vaughn injures Rebekah. Elena and Stefan come across the injured Damon and Rebekah, Stefan stays while Elena rushes to find Jeremy. Damon urges Stefan to go get the cure for Elena, uncaring that there is only enough for one, because he wants it for the girl he loves. After Stefan leave Rebekah comments that Damon did something selfless and remarks that he will always love Elena. An exhausted Damon admits that he can't control everything and is tired.

text: After Katherine kills Jeremy in 'Down the Rabbit Hole' Damon stays behind determined to find the missing Bonnie, telling Stefan he can't come home without her. Eventually he finds Bonnie, hugging her in relief, but when the two arrive back in Mystic Falls in informs Stefan Bonnie has lost her mind. Elena, who had been in denial about Jeremy's death, comes into reality and demands Damon bring Jeremy's body downstairs. When Elena starts breaking down Stefan urges Damon to help her, indicating he should invoke the sire bond to take away her pain, however instead Damon tells Elena to shut off her emotions. In the next episode Damon begins trying to track Katherine in order to find the cure while Rebekah attempts to tag along. He finds an old friend from his past, Will, dying from a werewolf bite and kills him out of mercy. He arrives back home just in time to stop Elena from killing Caroline and takes her with to New York. While in NY Damon begins investigating Katherine's whereabouts and tries to keep that he's looking for the cure from Elena. Elena finds out and attempts to play him all the while Damon tells her and Rebekah about his time here in the 1970s. He admits that he had his emotions off and Lexi had come to help him on Stefan's behalf, however he tricks her into believing he fell in love with her only to leave her trapped on the roof during the day as revenge. He reveals that the reason he killed Lexi in season one was out of the guilt she stirred in him. Elena kisses Damon and attempts to steal Katherine's address out of his pocket, however Damon was aware she was trying to play him the entire time, and attempts to convince her to turn her emotions back on. Rebekah shows up and snaps his neck. He then calls Stefan and the brothers attempt to track down Elena. The decide to give up on the cure after Elena kills a waitress and threatens to kill people.

text: In 'Pictures of You' Damon, along with Stefan, decide they're going to try making Elena turn her emotions back on. The Salvatore brothers decide to take Elena to the prom, where Damon asks Elena why she told him she was in love with him and it's the most real thing she ever felt. Elena tells Damon that she only said it because of the sire bond and she feels nothing for him. However, later when Bonnie nearly kills Elena, she cries out for Damon to help her and he locks her up in the Salvatore basement. Damon then manipulates Elena's dreams in an attempt to remind how much she loves her friends in family, however when it doesn't work the Salvatore brothers (per Stefan's advice) try torturing Elena to get her to feel emotion. Elena however calls their bluff and attempts to kill herself, knowing Damon would never really hurt her and let her die. Damon realizes that Elena is smart and that torture will not work. After Katherine frees Elena Damon comes up with a plan, killing Matt in front of her (while he wore the Gilbert ring) and it works to get Elena's emotions back on. When Elena focuses her hate on Katherine Damon tells Elena where Katherine is, but tells her she shouldn't try and kill her. Damon admits he hates Katherine, however he knows once Elena kills her all her other emotions (grief & guilt) will all come flooding back in. Elena stakes Damon in the stomach when he attempts to stop her.

text: In the season finale 'Graduation', he tries to give the cure to Elena, but Elena refuses, which tells him that there is no more sire bond. He gets shot by Vaughn with a bullet laced with werewolf venom, and almost dies, but Klaus comes back to Mystic Falls and saves him. At the end of the episode, Elena proclaims her love for him stating that of all the decisions she has made choosing him will prove to be the worse one.

text: Season 5[edit]

text: Not aware of Stefan's absence and Bonnie's death, Damon and Elena are having the time of their lives before Elena leaves for Whitmore college. College brings a lot of ups and downs to the on screen romance. Katherine begs Damon to protect her as she feels someone is after her, Damon by the help of Jeremy's vampire hunter instincts that Silas is possessing as Stefan. Silas gives Damon a crash course on why he looks like Stefan and tells where was he the whole summer, shocked to know about this he starts to search Stefan with the help of Stefan. Silas mind-controlled Elena to kill Damon but Elena resists it by thinking about her worries for Stefan. Both Elena and Damon, with the help of Sheriff Forbes, finds the safe where Stefan was drowning the whole summer, but only to find a dead body. Due to both Elena and Katherine having same nightmare of Stefan all three, Damon, Elena and Katherine search for Stefan. Damon finally finds Stefan inside a hut where he is tied up in the chair and Qetsiyah makes a link of Stefan with Silas which fries Stefan's brain. Qetsiyah reveals to Damon that his relationship with Elena is doomed. Damon and Elena take Stefan where both of them finds out that he has memory loss and can't remember anything. Damon, to make Stefan remember about his past life, gives him his journals and spends quality time with him. Jeremy tells Damon that Bonnie is dead and Damon finally tells Elena about Bonnie. At Bonnie's funeral, Damon consoles Elena. Damon wants to help Silas so that Silas can do a spell to swap his life with Bonnie as Silas wants to die. Silas had seen Qetsiyah going to the party therefore both Damon and Silas goes to the ball party at Whitmore College. Silas needs Damon to kill Stefan, so that he can get back his power. Stefan, after waking up, tricked Damon and snapped his neck. At Salvatore's mansion they bring a desiccated Silas, to trade Silas's life with Bonnie he must become mortal(witch). The only way is by the cure so Elena and Damon calls Katherine who has the cure in her blood and after she arrives her blood is drained by Silas, but still Katherine lived. Amara is then awakened and revealed to be the mystic anchor. She then cures herself of her immortality by feeding off Silas.

text: Season 6[edit]

text: At the beginning of season 6, Damon is still trapped in the 1994 snapshot with Bonnie, forced to relive the same day over and over again. As the season progresses, the duo meet Kai Parker who's provides them with clues on how to get back home. In a truly selfless act, Bonnie manages to send Damon back while she remains in 1994 with Kai. Back home, things aren't as Damon expected them to be. Elena has compelled her memories of their time together and moved on. After a few initial set backs, Damon sets his mind to wooing her back.

text: As the season progresses, Elena falls for Damon all over again as they search for a way to free Bonnie and she becomes a large part of his support as his good friend Liz Forbes becomes more and more ill with cancer. Kai, who escaped the Prison World without Bonnie and merged with Luke, has absorbed some of Luke's qualities and is now moved by guilt to help free Bonnie. With his help, he, along with Damon, Elena, and Jeremy, are able to visit the Prison World and remind Bonnie that there is still magic residing in Qetsiyah's headstone in Nova Scotia.

text: After the death of Liz, Caroline is unable to bear the pain of losing her mother and chooses to turn off her humanity just as Bonnie returns. Bonnie brought back with her a strange video she'd caught while leaving a second Prison World she'd been moved to set in October 31, 1903. She shows the video to Damon and he recognizes his own mother, Lillian Salvatore, standing in the background. Troubled with the news that his mother is still alive after believing she'd been dead since 1858, Damon's informed by Kai that his mother was placed in a Prison World due to being a Ripper and the heinous number of deaths she'd caused. Unfortunately, Stefan is forced by Caroline to turn off his humanity and Kai, Bonnie, Damon, and Elena have to travel to Lily's 1903 Prison World to retrieve her and use her as a means to get Stefan back.

text: Damon is disturbed to learn when he gets to Lily that she has been trapped with other vampires and they allowed her to drink their portions of blood to stay alive. She is reluctant to leave without them, but Damon threatens to leave her behind if she doesn't go. Bonnie, Damon, and Elena leave with Lily, leaving Kai behind. When they return, Bonnie gives Damon a gift she'd gotten for him during her trip to Nova Scotia in the 1994 Prison World: the cure to vampirism. He struggles with whether or not to give it to Elena and provide her with the life she'd been robbed of.

text: After using Lily to get Stefan's humanity back and he is used to bring Caroline back, Lily is adamant about returning to her Prison World to retrieve what she considers to be her family. Damon confronts Bonnie, who had taken the Ascendant, and tells her that Lily is threatening to destroy the cure if he doesn't return with the means to get her "family" back. However, when he decides to let Bonnie destroy the Ascendant, he comes home to find that Lily had actually given the cure to Elena instead. He confesses that he was selfish and afraid of losing her but agrees that she should take it and that he'll take it with her.

text: Elena takes the cure and, unexpectedly, her memories return and she remembers when she'd traveled to Nova Scotia with Damon in search of the cure the first time, he'd told her that he used to miss being human, but, now, he couldn't imagine anything more miserable. She tells him he needs to think about it before making that decision and enlists Stefan to try to make sure Damon is certain of his choice to become human. Damon almost decides he'd rather stay a vampire until he witnesses an interaction between an older couple. Before Jo and Ric's wedding, he tells Elena he'd made his choice to live one lifetime with her. During the wedding, Kai shows up and stabs Jo before causing an explosion. The second to last episode ends with Elena lying unconscious on the ground.

text: In the last episode of the 6th season titled "I'm Thinking Of You All The While" Damon rushes Elena to the hospital after vampire blood fails to heal and awaken her. At the hospital the doctors tell him that she is medically healthy and they see no reason why she's not awake. Kai stumbles into the hospital injured. After consuming Lily's blood and killing himself, Kai's ability to siphon magic allowed him to become another Heretic (vampire with witch-like power), but he was soon bitten by a transforming Tyler, who had re-triggered his werewolf curse. Kai tells Damon and he's linked Elena's life to Bonnie's and as long as Bonnie lives, Elena will remain asleep but perfectly healthy. He also tells him that the spell is permanent and any attempt to find a loophole in the spell will result in the death of both Bonnie and Elena. Damon returns to the wedding to find Bonnie badly injured on the floor and Kai's reminder that letting Bonnie die will allow Elena to regain consciousness. Damon tells Bonnie he's sorry and leaves the room. Kai is irritated that his plan to torture Damon with an impossible choice had failed and, while he's distracted, Damon decapitates him from behind. Damon saves Bonnie's life and they go to the Salvatore boarding house to say their goodbyes to Elena, deciding that they will allow Bonnie to live her life and, when she dies, Elena will wake. Damon allows himself to enter Elena's subconscious to say his goodbye, dancing with her and telling her that he'll never be ready to live the next 60 years of his life without her. Stefan and Damon move the coffin holding Elena to a crypt and have Bonnie seal the door magically to keep away those seeking the Cure.

text: The season ends with the impression that quite a bit of time has passed. Mystic Falls is desolate and run down after the return of the other Heretics, Lily's "family". The last scene shows Damon looking torn standing on the clock tower he once sat on with Elena.

text: Relationships[edit]

text: At the start of season 1, Damon was a self-proclaimed loner,[8] often keeps to himself. Despite his initially antagonistic relationships with humans such as Alaric Saltzman and Sheriff Elizabeth Forbes, Caroline's mother. Damon gradually involved himself into the lives of many people in Mystic Falls by developing friendships with several humans. After spending time with Elena Gilbert, Damon becomes more empathetic and falls deeply, madly and passionately in love with her. He always puts her safety first before anyone else, even his.[9][10]

text: Damon's most prominent love, aside from Elena, was Rose. He met her while searching for Klaus and hooked up with her shortly after. Unfortunately Damon ticked off Jules, a werewolf, and she showed up on a full moon for revenge.

text: Stefan Salvatore[edit]

text: Damon has had a challenging relationship with his younger brother Stefan Salvatore for over a century. Before they became vampires, they both loved the vampire Katherine Pierce. Damon shows that he has nurtured a long-standing desire to reunite with Katherine throughout the first season. In the first season, we learn that it was Stefan who convinced Damon to feed and complete his transformation after Katherine turned both brothers into vampires.[11] Despite the feud between the Salvatore brothers, both Damon and Stefan always have each other's backs. Damon is always there for Stefan when it really matters, e.g., saving him from being tortured, helping him through withdrawal, and working with him to kill common enemies.[12] And Stefan will still give up his own life for Damon's survival. They both actually love each other but won't admit it, however:[13]

text: Elena Gilbert[edit]

text: After learning of Katherine's deceit, Damon starts to fall for, Elena. In general, Damon is fiercely protective of Elena and always puts her safety ahead of all else. Damon comes to Elena's rescue at the Miss Mystic Falls pageant when Elena is left stranded without a partner, and the two dance. In the episode "Rose", Damon confesses his love for her only to compel her to forget about it because he doesn't believe he is worthy of her. Throughout the third season his relationship with Elena grows; she learns to fully trust him, and they begin to rely on each other as a team. They share two passionate kisses, but Elena remains in denial about her feelings for him. After a long struggle, Elena still chooses Stefan much to Damon's dismay. In the following season, however, Elena realizes that her feelings for Damon cannot be denied any longer. She and Stefan break up, and in the following episode Damon and Elena finally get together and have sex. Damon and Elena then both individually discover that Elena is sired to Damon, making Elena's feelings unfortunately known; however, Elena insists that her love for Damon is the most real thing that she's ever felt in her entire life. Damon remains doubtful, so in "O Come, All Ye Faithful" he sets her "free". In an interview before the season finale, Julie Plec stated that "This year, she's had a very traumatic roller coaster of life experience and it's changed her irrevocably—and at the center of it all was the diehard belief that she loved Damon, that she loved him more than she'd ever loved anyone." [14] In "Graduation", after the sire bond is broken and there remains no doubt about Elena's feelings, she reveals that she is in love with Damon.

text: Damon and Elena spend the next few months together, having the summer of their lives. When Elena has to leave for college, Damon stays behind in Mystic Falls and they have a functional long distance relationship. However, in the episode "Original Sin", Tessa, who is revealed to be Qetsiyah, tells Damon that the doppelgangers are fated to fall in love and that he is only a bump in the road that makes their story interesting. Damon refuses to believe in this and assures Elena that he will fight for her and their future together as she is his life. It is later revealed that there is nothing fated about Stefan and Elena, but that they were merely drawn together by a spell. After a tumultuous, back and forth relationship, Damon and Elena get back together at the end of the season, and they choose to sacrifice themselves together to save Stefan and Alaric and their other friends on the Other Side. When Elena makes it back but Damon is trapped on the collapsing Other Side, Elena is devastated. Damon says his last goodbye to Elena, telling her that she is by far the best thing that has ever happened to him, and that being loved by her is "the epitome of a fulfilled life", as Elena sobs inconsolably. In season 6, Elena is unable to move on from Damon's death months later. She pretends to be happy, but she is secretly taking witch herbs to hallucinate Damon. When the herbs make her dangerous to humans, Elena decides to have Alaric compel away her memories of Damon, because she will never be able to move on otherwise. When Damon returns, he attempts to help her remember their love story, but the compulsion will not break. Not remembering any of the good things about Damon, Elena still decides to give him another chance. She slowly falls in love with him again, ultimately declaring that no matter whether she has memories of him or not, she always finds her way back to him. When Bonnie returns from the prison world, she gifts Damon with the cure for vampirism, knowing that he wanted to give it to Elena. However, Damon is afraid that this will mean losing Elena. They discuss what a human life together would be like. Elena initially rejects the cure, but Damon decides to take it with her so that they can have a human life together, including children. Damon always wanted Elena to have the human life she always dreamed of. Elena takes the cure, which breaks the compulsion, and her memories of Damon return to her. She recalls a memory from season 4, where Damon declares that there would be nothing more miserable than becoming human again. Elena is afraid that Damon would regret taking the cure, so she challenges him to think it through carefully. Stefan attempts to convince Damon that becoming human would be a bad decision, but Damon ultimately realizes that one lifetime with Elena is infinitely better than an immortal one without her, and confidently believes her to be his soulmate. Damon and Elena excitedly anticipate the beginning of their human future together, until Kai puts Elena under a sleeping spell, tied to Bonnie's life.

text: Damon spends the next two seasons devoted to Elena, waiting for her to wake up. He repeatedly states that he is miserable without her, and will spend the next 60 or so years unhappily until Bonnie dies. However, Damon is committed to staying true to Elena, and doing right by her. Elena is shown to be Damon's moral compass, and his guiding force throughout the two seasons. When Damon is in the Phoenix Stone's version of hell, a vision of Stefan asks Damon "What would Elena do?" and this prompts Damon to forgive his mother, freeing him from hell. The phoenix stone's influence remains, and Damon accidentally lights Elena's coffin on fire (or so he thinks). Believing that he has unwittingly killed the love of his life, Damon becomes suicidal. When confronted with the hunter Rayna, Damon commands her to kill him because he is already in hell in a world without Elena. Enzo then reveals to Damon that Elena is still alive, renewing Damon's hope. When Damon realizes that he is a potential danger to his friends and family because he does not believe he is good without Elena, he decides to desiccate himself next to her. He write to Alaric that before Elena, he didn't know what it was like to be happy, fulfilled or complete, and that he doesn't want to continue living without that feeling. After Stefan wakes Damon from his desiccation, Damon continues to be devoted to his future with Elena. At the end of season 7, he is lured into a trap by a siren, hearing Elena's voice calling out to him. When the siren takes control of Damon's mind in season 8, Damon spends a significant amount of time sleeping, seeking refuge in dreams of his memories of Elena. When Sybil erases Elena from Damon's consciousness only to insert herself into their memories, Damon fights back, instinctively drawn back to Elena. His love for her prevails, and he breaks the siren's mind control, regaining his memories of Elena. Julie Plec stated that "I think the only hope that he's holding on to is the idea of the two of them living in Tribeca in their brownstone and raising kids and having a life together as humans when this is all said and done." [15] After Stefan gives Damon the cure to vampirism, turning him into a human, and Bonnie unbreaks the spell on Elena, Damon and Elena finally reunite. They begin their life together, getting married while Elena goes to medical school and becomes a doctor. Eventually they return to Mystic Falls to grow old together, where they died together of old age. We last see them walking hand in hand in the afterlife before reuniting with their respective families.

text: Alaric Saltzman[edit]

text: Alaric is a vampire hunter looking to avenge his wife by killing the vampire that killed her. It is soon revealed that the vampire that Alaric is hunting is actually Damon. Before killing Alaric, he confesses that he didn't kill Isobel but turned her. Alaric is brought back to life by the Gilbert ring. The two remain enemies but work together on occasion. Eventually, the two become best friends and drinking buddies. Even after Alaric is turned into a vampire who kills other vampires, Damon does his best to ensure that they don't have to kill him. But with Elena's death, Alaric dies as well while Damon holds him. In the episode, "Memorial", it's clear that Damon still misses his friend as he talks to Alaric at his grave. Unknown to him, Alaric listens to the whole thing and even responds with "I miss you too, buddy". Damon's best friend.

text: Bonnie Bennett[edit]

text: Bonnie first saw Damon in Friday Night Bites when he dropped Caroline off at cheerleading practice. They first interacted in Haunted, when Damon learned that Bonnie had come into possession of the Bennett Talisman. He needed this to open the tomb which Katherine was locked in (for 145 years or so he believed). At first, Bonnie didn't want to have anything to do with Damon, saving his life only for Elena's sake and soon blaming him for Caroline's transition into a vampire. However, as time went on, Bonnie was put into situations where she had to work with Damon to achieve what they both wanted (albeit reluctantly at first). Their teamwork has often proved to be beneficial for the both of them. Their relationship has even come to a point where Damon is visibly worried for Bonnie's well-being and was devastated when he found out about her death. The improvement of their relationship is seen in Damon's efforts to help bring Bonnie back from the dead. However, their unique friendship hit a speed bump when Damon reverted to his old ways. Finally, they stood side by side with each other as The Other Side collapsed, holding each other's hand and at peace with what is to come for the both of them. They later discover that they are trapped in a 1994 Prison World. During that time, they start to bond and form a close alliance to take down Kai. Before sending Damon back home, she mentions that he's not exactly the last person she would wanna be stuck with. When Damon returns home, he does everything he can to find a way to bring Bonnie back, including a long road trip to Oregon to seek the Gemini Coven, and also compelling Alaric to steal the Ascendant from Jo. They finally reunite at the Salvatore Boarding House with a hug after Sheriff Forbes's funeral. It's shown that Damon and Bonnie genuinely care about each other and have made sacrifices for each other.


document_title: Amazon Echo

question_text: what is amazon echo dot and how does it work

text: Amazon Echo

text: Features[edit]

text: Overview of operation[edit]

text: In the default mode, the device continuously listens to all speech, monitoring for the wake word to be spoken, which is primarily set up as "Alexa" (derived from Alexa Internet, the Amazon-owned Internet indexing company). Echo's microphones can be manually disabled by pressing a mute button to turn off the audio processing circuit.[3]

text: Echo devices require a wireless Internet connection in order to work. Echo's voice recognition capability is based on Amazon Web Services and the voice platform Amazon acquired from Yap,[10] Evi, and IVONA[11] (a Polish-based specialist in voice technologies used in the Kindle Fire).[12]

text: The smart speakers perform well with a 'good' (low-latency) Internet connection which minimizes processing time due to minimal communication round trips, streamable responses and geo-distributed service endpoints. While the application is free, an Amazon account is required, and setup is not possible without one.

text: Available services[edit]

text: Echo device offers weather from AccuWeather and news from a variety of sources, including local radio stations, iHeartRadio, NPR, and ESPN from TuneIn.[13] Echo can play music from the owner's Amazon Music accounts[14] and has built-in support for the Pandora and Spotify streaming music services[15] and has support for IFTTT and Nest thermostats.[16] Echo can also play music from streaming services such as Apple Music, and Google Play Music from a phone or tablet. Echo maintains voice-controlled alarms, timers, shopping and to-do lists and can access Wikipedia articles. Echo will respond to your questions about items in your Google calendar. It also integrates with Yonomi,[17] Philips Hue, Belkin Wemo, SmartThings, Insteon, and Wink.[18][19] Additionally, integration with the Echo is in the works for Countertop by Orange Chef, Sonos,[20] Scout Alarm, Garageio, Toymail, MARA, and Mojio.[21] Questions like "Who is Kim Kardashian?" are answered by reading the first few lines of the corresponding Wikipedia article.[22]

text: It does not appear to be capable of playing music streamed from a local UPnP/DLNA media server.[citation needed]

text: Echo devices also have access to 'skills' built with the Alexa Skills Kit. These are third-party-developed voice experiences that add to the capabilities of any Alexa-enabled device (such as the Echo). Examples of skills include the ability to play music, answer general questions, set an alarm, order a pizza, get an Uber, and more. Skills are continuously being added to increase the capabilities available to the user. The Alexa Skills Kit is a collection of self-service APIs, tools, documentation and code samples that make it fast and easy for any developer to add skills to Alexa. Developers can also use the "Smart Home Skill API",[23] a new addition to the Alexa Skills Kit, to easily teach Alexa how to control cloud-controlled lighting and thermostat devices. All of the code runs in the cloud – nothing is on any user device. A developer can follow tutorials to learn how to quickly build voice experiences for their new and existing applications.[24]

text: Voice system[edit]

text: The devices have natural lifelike voices resulting from speech-unit technology.[25] High speech accuracy is achieved through sophisticated natural language processing (NLP) algorithms built into the Echo's text-to-speech (TTS) engine.

text: Software updates[edit]

text: As with all Alexa devices, the functionality of Echo smart speakers periodically evolves as Amazon releases new software for it. Most new releases will fix bugs in addition to including enhanced functionality. New releases are pushed to the devices on a gradual basis so it may take several days to a week or more for a particular device to be updated. Because much of Echo's intelligence lies in the cloud, significant functional enhancements can be made to Echo without updating the software version it is running. For example, in April 2015, the Echo added the ability to give live sports scores without updating the software version,[26] running on the device.

text: Products[edit]

text: Echo[edit]

text:
Amazon Echo (first generation)

Amazon Echo unpacked, January 2015

Release date

November 6, 2014 (2014-11-06) (Amazon Prime and invited members)
June 23, 2015 (2015-06-23) (released in the U.S.)
September 28, 2016 (2016-09-28) (released in the U.K.)
October 26, 2016 (2016-10-26) (released in Germany)

Introductory price
US$179.99
GB£149.99
EUR€179.99

Connectivity
WiFi and Bluetooth

Website
Amazon Echo (US)
Amazon Echo (UK)
Amazon Echo (Germany)

tag: table

text:
Amazon Echo (second generation)

Release date

October 31, 2017 (2017-10-31) (released in the U.S.)

Introductory price
US$99.99

Connectivity
WiFi and Bluetooth

Website
Amazon Echo (US)
Amazon Echo (UK)
Amazon Echo (Germany)

text: The first-generation Amazon Echo consists of a 9.25 inch (23.5 cm) tall cylinder speaker with a seven-piece microphone array.[3] The Echo hardware complement includes a Texas Instruments DM3725 ARM Cortex-A8 processor, 256MB of LPDDR1 RAM and 4GB of storage space.[27] As of July 2017, the first-generation Echo maintained an 83% score on GearCaliber, a review aggregator.

text: Although the Echo is intended to be voice-controlled at the unit, a microphone-enabled remote control similar to the one bundled with the Fire TV is available for purchase. An action button on top of the unit is provided for user setup in a new location, and the mute button allows the microphones to be turned off.[28] The top half-inch of the unit rotates to increase or decrease the speaker volume. The Echo must be plugged in to operate since it has no internal battery.[29]

text: Echo provides dual-band Wi-Fi 802.11a/b/g/n and Bluetooth Advanced Audio Distribution Profile (A2DP) support for audio streaming and Audio/Video Remote Control Profile (AVRCP) for voice control of connected mobile devices.[30]

text: In November 2017, a Product Red version of the 2nd-gen Echo was announced as a limited edition item.[31]

text: Availability[edit]

text: As of December 2017, the second-generation Echo is available in 33 countries.

text:
Belgium
 Bolivia
 Bulgaria
 Canada
 Chile
 Colombia
 Costa Rica
 Cyprus
 Czech Republic
 Ecuador
 El Salvador
 Estonia
 Finland
 Germany
 Greece
 Hungary
 Iceland
 India
 Latvia
 Liechtenstein
 Lithuania
 Luxembourg
 Malta
 Netherlands
 Panama
 Peru
 Poland
 Portugal
 Slovakia
 Sweden
 United Kingdom
 United States
 Uruguay

tag: ul

text: Echo Dot[edit]

text: In March 2016, Amazon unveiled the original Amazon Echo Dot,[32] which is a hockey puck-sized version of the Echo designed to be connected to external speakers due to size of the onboard speakers, or to be used in rooms such as the bedroom as an alternative to the full-sized Echo. Beyond these distinctions, the Amazon Echo Dot possesses the same functions as the original Amazon Echo.[33]

text: External portable batteries[34] have been developed for the Amazon Echo Dot by third parties.

text: The second generation of the Amazon Echo Dot was available on October 20, 2016. It is priced lower, has improved voice recognition, and is available in black and white. The Echo Spatial Perception (ESP) technology allows several Echo and Dot units to work together so that only one device answers the request.[citation needed] As of November 2017, the Echo Dot maintained a 78% score on GearCaliber, based on 23 reviews.[35]

text: Amazon Tap[edit]

text: The Amazon Tap is a smaller portable version of the Echo.[36] The Tap can do the same things as the Echo; however, as it is battery-powered, it is also portable.[37] Initially the user had to press an activation button on the front of the Tap to speak commands. However, a February 2017 software update allows the option of activating the Tap with an activation word, just like the Echo and the Dot.[38]

text: Echo Look[edit]

text: In April 2017, the Amazon Echo Look was introduced as a camera with Alexa built-in, for US$20 more than the first-generation Echo.[39] The device can provide artificial intelligence outfit recommendations, take photos, and record videos; in addition to the features available on the Echo.[40] It offers Amazon Alexa's key feature plus a camera to take full-length photos and 360-degree videos with built-in AI for fashion advice.[41][42] As a consumer product, it helps catalog your outfits and rates your look based on “machine learning algorithms with advice from fashion specialists.[43]

text: As of April 2017, the device is available for purchase by invitation-only in the U.S.[44]

text: Echo Show[edit]

text: In May 2017, Amazon introduced the Echo Show, which features a tactile 7-inch LCD screen that can be used for playing media, making video calls (5 MP front camera), and other features.[45] The Echo Show was offered for purchase at a price of $229.99 on June 28, 2017 and was initially only available in the U.S.[46]

text: Echo Spot[edit]

text: On 27 September 2017, Amazon launched the Echo Spot, a hemispherical device that has the same functions as an Echo Show.[47] The device has a 2.5-inch circular screen, and looks like an alarm clock. The device will be sold for $129.99.[48]

text: Echo Plus[edit]

text: On 27 September 2017, Amazon announced the Echo Plus, scheduled for release on 31 October 2017. It shares design similarities with the first-generation Echo, but also doubles as a smart home hub, connecting to most common wireless protocols to control connected smart devices within a home.[49] It incorporates 7 second-generation far field microphones and noise cancellation, while also supporting Dolby Sound.

text: Accessories[edit]

text: Along with the second-generation Echo, Amazon announced two new accessories. The Echo Buttons can be used while playing games on Echo devices, such as Jeopardy!.[50] The Echo Connect is a small adapter that plugs into any Echo and a home phone line, allowing the Echo to make voice calls through your home phone number.[51]

text: Privacy concerns[edit]

text: There are concerns about the access Echo has to private conversations in the home, or other non-verbal indications that can identify who is present in the home and who is not—based on audible cues such as footstep-cadence or radio/television programming.[52][53] Amazon responds to these concerns by stating that Echo only streams recordings from the user's home when the 'wake word' activates the device, though the device is technically capable of streaming voice recordings at all times, and in fact will always be listening to detect if a user has uttered the word.

text: Echo uses past voice recordings the user has sent to the cloud service to improve response to future questions the user may pose. To address privacy concerns, the user can delete voice recordings that are currently associated with the user's account, but doing so may degrade the user's experience using voice search. To delete these recordings, the user can visit the Manage My Device page on Amazon.com or contact Amazon customer service.

text: Echo uses an address set in the Alexa companion app when it needs a location.[54] Amazon and third-party apps and websites use location information to provide location-based services and store this information to provide voice services, the Maps app, Find Your Device, and to monitor the performance and accuracy of location services. For example, Echo voice services use the user's location to respond to the user's requests for nearby restaurants or stores. Similarly, Echo uses the user's location to process the user's mapping-related requests and improve the Maps experience. All information collected is subject to the Amazon.com Privacy Notice.[55]

text: Amazon retains digital recordings of users' audio spoken after the "wake up word", and while the audio recordings are subject to demands by law enforcement, government agents, and other entities via subpoena, Amazon publishes some information about the warrants it receives, the subpoenas it receives, and some of the warrant-less demands it receives, allowing customers some indication as to the percentage of illegal demands for customer information it receives.[56]

text: Echo as criminal evidence[edit]

text: During the course of the investigation into the November 22, 2015 death of Victor Collins in the home of James Andrew Bates in Bentonville, Arkansas, police sought the data stored on the Amazon Echo on the premises as evidence, but were refused by Amazon.[57][58] The conflict was resolved when Bates consented to the release of his personal information that was held by Amazon.[59][60]

text: Limitations[edit]

text: Purchasing merchandise in the categories of apparel, shoes, jewelry, and watches is not available.[61] In addition, Amazon Fresh, Amazon Prime Pantry, Prime Now, or Add-On items are not supported by Alexa's ordering function,[62] while, the shopping list function allows no more than one item to be added at a time.[63]

text: Echo has provided inconsistent responses when asked common questions to which users would expect better answers. Echo sometimes confuses certain homophones (words that sound the same but have different meanings, such as where/wear/ware).[64]


document_title: The Jeffersons

question_text: who sings the theme song for the jeffersons

text: The Jeffersons

text: Show[edit]

text: The show focuses on George and Louise Jefferson, a prosperous African-American couple who have been able to move from Queens to Manhattan owing to the success of George's dry-cleaner chain. The show was launched as the second spin-off of All in the Family, on which the Jeffersons had been the neighbors of Archie and Edith Bunker.[5][6] The show was the creation of Norman Lear.[5][7] The Jeffersons eventually evolved into more of a traditional sitcom but did reference such issues as alcoholism, racism, suicide, gun control, being transgender, and adult illiteracy. The epithets "nigger" and "honky" were used occasionally, especially during the earlier seasons.[2][4]

text: The Jeffersons had one spin-off, titled Checking In. The series was centered on the Jeffersons' housekeeper, Florence.[8] Checking In only lasted four episodes, after which Florence returned to The Jeffersons.[9] The Jeffersons also shared continuity with the show E/R, which featured Lynne Moody, who made a guest appearance in one episode of The Jeffersons.[10] Sherman Hemsley guest-starred as George in two episodes of the series, which lasted for one season.[11]

text: The Jeffersons ended in controversy after CBS abruptly canceled the series without allowing for a proper series finale. The cast was not informed until after the July 2, 1985, episode "Red Robins", and actor Sherman Hemsley said he found out that the show was canceled by reading it in the newspaper.[12] Sanford, who heard about the cancellation through her cousin who read about it in the tabloids, has publicly stated that she found the cancellation with no proper finale to be disrespectful on the network's part.[13]

text: The cast reunited in a stage play based on the sitcom.[14] In the 1996 series finale of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, the Jeffersons made a guest appearance and bought the house from the Banks family.[1] In an episode of Tyler Perry's House of Payne in 2011, Sherman Hemsley and Marla Gibbs reprised their roles of George Jefferson and Florence Johnston.[15]

text: In 1985, Hemsley and Sanford made a special joint guest appearance in the Canale 5 comedy show Grand Hotel, starring Italian actors Paolo Villaggio, Franco & Ciccio comic duo and Carmen Russo. They were guests in the fictional hotel, and appeared just twice during the show, for a total of five minutes. Their voices were dubbed by Italian actors Enzo Garinei (George) and Isa di Marzio (Louise), who also dubbed their characters for the full series.[citation needed]

text: Series development[edit]

text: Louise Jefferson, played by Isabel Sanford, first appeared in the All in the Family episode "Lionel Moves Into the Neighborhood", which was broadcast on March 2, 1971. The episode, the eighth of the series, centers on Louise, her son Lionel, and her husband George's moving next door to Archie and Edith Bunker in the working-class section of Queens.[2] Lionel, played by Mike Evans, first appeared in "Meet the Bunkers", the premiere episode of All in the Family.[2]

text: Norman Lear created the character of George Jefferson specifically for Hemsley. Lear originally intended for George to appear in the first season of the series; however, Hemsley was starring in the Broadway musical Purlie at the time, and Lear decided to postpone introduction of the character until Hemsley was available. Lear created the character of Henry Jefferson, George's younger brother, and replaced George with Henry in the series's scripts until Purlie finished its run. Mel Stewart was cast as Henry.[2][3] George was introduced in the episode "Henry's Farewell", and Hemsley and Stewart share their only scene together in its final minutes. The episode marked the final appearance of Henry.

text: George, Louise, and Lionel continued to appear on All in the Family until 1975, when the spin-off The Jeffersons, also created by Lear, premiered.[8] The characters of Lionel's biracial fiancée, Jenny, and her family, all of whom first appeared in the 1974 All in the Family episode "Lionel's Engagement", were also written into the new series.[16] However, the roles were all recast, with Berlinda Tolbert taking over the role of Jenny, veteran actor Franklin Cover playing her father, Tom Willis, whose first name was changed from Louis, as it was in their first AITF appearance, and Roxie Roker as her mother, Helen.

text: Synopsis[edit]

text: During the January 11, 1975 episode of All in the Family, titled "The Jeffersons Move Up", Edith Bunker gave a tearful good-bye to her neighbor Louise Jefferson, as her husband George, their son Lionel, and she moved from a working-class section of Queens, New York into a luxury apartment in Manhattan.[17] The Jeffersons premiered the following week, on January 18, 1975.[8]

text: George's career as a dry-cleaner began in the first season of All in the Family, in the third episode, "Oh, My Aching Back" (though the character himself did not appear on-camera). After his car was rear-ended by a bus, he filed a civil action and won $3200, enough to open his first store in Queens.[3] At the beginning of The Jeffersons, he was operating five stores throughout New York City, with another two opening during the following seasons.

text: Louise made friends with Tom and Helen Willis, an interracial couple with two adult children of their own[8] (whom George insultingly called "zebras"):[1][18] son Allan (played by Andrew Rubin in the first-season finale, and by Jay Hammer throughout season 5), a white-passing college drop-out; and daughter Jenny, an aspiring fashion designer. Jenny and Lionel became a couple, were married on December 24, 1976, and later became the parents of a daughter, Jessica (played in later seasons by Ebonie Smith).[8][19] Lionel and Jenny experienced marital issues, and filed for divorce in 1985.[8]

text: Marla Gibbs portrayed the role of Florence Johnston, the Jeffersons' back-talking, wisecracking, and devoutly religious housekeeper. Florence often teased George, mostly about his short stature and receding hairline.[20] Paul Benedict arrived as Harry Bentley, a loyal, kind, friendly yet somewhat dimwitted British next-door neighbor,[8] who worked as an interpreter at the United Nations.[21]

text: A common sight-gag of the show was George slamming the door in Bentley's face mid-conversation.[21] Bentley also had a bad back, and frequently needed George to walk on his back.[22][23] He also became known for addressing the Jeffersons as "Mr. J" and "Mrs. J".[23] Zara Cully played George's mother, Olivia "Mother" Jefferson, who constantly disparaged her daughter-in-law.[6][18][19] Cully, who had first appeared in the 1974 All in the Family episode, "Lionel's Engagement", reprised her role.[24] She appeared regularly in the first two seasons, but made sporadic appearances over the next two years and was written out in the fifth season (Cully died in 1978, from lung cancer; no episode was centered on Mother Jefferson's death, but it was mentioned that she had died in season 5). Ned Wertimer played the doorman, Ralph Hart, throughout the series,[25] along with Danny Wells who played Charlie the bartender.[26]

text: Cast changes[edit]

text: Mike Evans ("Lionel") left the show after the first season; his replacement was Damon Evans (no relation),[6] who took over the role until halfway through the fourth season.[8] Damon Evans's last episode was "Lionel Gets the Business".

text: Mike Evans and Tolbert returned in the 1979–1980 season, with Tolbert's character, Jenny, pregnant with a daughter named Jessica. However, Mike Evans appeared for only one more season, along with Tolbert.[8] The Jeffersons' sixth season peaked at #8 in the summer of 1980. The characters of Lionel and Jenny were written out by stating that they had marital problems, the result of which became a two-part episode storyline as the series' eighth-season premiere. The series' eighth season was the first African-American sitcom in years (since Sanford and Son) to peak in the top 5 (the series' eighth season debuted at #3).

text: Evans and Tolbert appeared in the two-part episode together; Evans also appeared in one episode during the series' ninth season in 1982, and made his final appearance in two episodes during the series' eleventh and final season. Tolbert became a regular guest star throughout the rest of the series. In the spring of 1981, Paul Benedict left the show for a season and a half, returning in the final two seasons of the series.[8] However, the ratings sank below the top 30, and The Jeffersons aired its last episode, "Red Robins", on July 2, 1985.[27]

text: Main cast[edit]

text:
Actor/Actress
Character
Seasons

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11

Isabel Sanford
Louise Jefferson
Main

Sherman Hemsley
George Jefferson
Main

Mike Evans
Lionel Jefferson
Main

Main
Recurring

Guest

Damon Evans

Main

Roxie Roker
Helen Willis
Main

Franklin Cover
Thomas "Tom" Willis
Main

Zara Cully
Olivia "Mother" Jefferson
Main

Berlinda Tolbert
Jenny Willis Jefferson
Main
Recurring

Paul Benedict
Harry Bentley
Main

Main

Marla Gibbs
Florence Johnston
Recurring
Main

Jay Hammer
Allan Willis

Main

Ned Wertimer
Ralph Hart
Recurring

Danny Wells
Charlie the bartender
Recurring

Ebonie Smith
Jessica Jefferson

Recurring

text: Notable guest appearances[edit]

text: This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (January 2017) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

text:
Frances Bay
Johnny Brown
Barbara Cason
Charo
Gary Coleman[1]
Andrae Crouch
Sammy Davis, Jr.[9]
Frank De Vol
Phyllis Diller (as herself)
David Dukes
Famous Amos
Bernard Fox
Joe Frazier
Susie Garrett
Louis Gossett, Jr.
Rosie Grier
Robert Guillaume[9]
Moses Gunn
Kene Holliday
Reggie Jackson
Victor Kilian
Lincoln Kilpatrick
Mabel King
Gladys Knight
Peter Lawford (voice)
Larry Linville
Carl Lumbly
Helen Martin
Edie McClurg
Garrett Morris
Greg Morris[9]
Josephine Premice[28]
Sheryl Lee Ralph
Thalmus Rasulala
Susan Ruttan
Sister Sledge[29]
Michael Spinks
Amzie Strickland
Ernest Lee Thomas
Liz Torres
Donald Trump
Vernee Watson
Jaleel White
Billy Dee Williams[9]
Hal Williams

text: Episodes[edit]

text: The Jeffersons had many two-part episodes, either over two consecutive weeks, or aired as an hour-long episode.

text: Theme song[edit]

text: Ja'net Dubois (from Good Times) and Jeff Barry co-wrote The Jeffersons theme song, "Movin' on Up", which was sung by Dubois with a gospel choir.[31] The song was covered by Sammy Davis, Jr., in 1978.[32]

text: Broadcast history and Nielsen ratings[edit]

text: The Jeffersons changed time slots at least 15 different times during its 11-year run, unusual for a popular long running series.[33] The most common time slot was on Sunday night.[7]

text: In its first season (1974–75), the show ranked at number four, surpassed by its parent series All in the Family (which landed at number one for the fifth year in a row).[34] The show's ratings for the following two seasons placed it in the Top 30, but during the 1977–78 and 1978–79 seasons (the show's fourth and fifth seasons), it fell out of the top 30.[19]

text: It returned to the Top 10 in 1979–80, and at the end of the 1981–82 season, The Jeffersons finished third overall, only surpassed by fellow CBS series Dallas and 60 Minutes. As a result, the series remained among the Top 20 for the next two seasons.[19]

text:
Season
Time slot (ET)
Rank
Rating

1974–1975
Saturday at 8:30 pm
4
27.6

1975–1976
Saturday at 8:00 pm
21
21.5

1976–1977
Saturday at 8:00 pm (Episodes 1–6)
Wednesday at 8:00 pm (Episodes 7–14)
Monday at 8:00 pm (Episodes 15–24)
24
24.2

1977–1978
Saturday at 9:00 pm (Episodes 1, 3–22, 25–26)
Saturday at 9:30 pm (Episode 2)
Saturday at 8:00 pm (Episode 23)
Saturday at 8:30 pm (Episode 24)
Not in the Top 30

1978–1979
Wednesday at 8:00 pm (Episodes 1–6, 8–24)
Saturday at 8:00 pm (Episode 7)

1979–1980
Sunday at 9:30 pm
8
24.3

1980–1981
Sunday at 9:30 pm (Episodes 1–2, 5–18, 20)
Sunday at 10:00 pm (Episode 3)
Sunday at 10:30 pm (Episode 4)
Sunday at 9:00 pm (Episode 19)
6
23.5

1981–1982
Sunday at 9:30 pm
3
23.4

1982–1983
Sunday at 9:00 pm
12
20.0 (Tied with Knots Landing)

1983–1984
Sunday at 9:00 pm (Episodes 1, 3–22)
Sunday at 9:30 pm (Episode 2)
19
18.6

1984–1985
Sunday at 9:00 pm (1984)
Tuesday at 8:00 pm (Episodes 9–17, 23–24)
Tuesday at 8:30 pm (Episodes 18–22)
Not in the Top 30

text: Awards and nominations[edit]

text: The Jeffersons received 14 Emmy Award nominations during its time on the air.[35] Marla Gibbs was nominated for Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series each year from 1981-85. Sherman Hemsley was nominated for Best Actor in 1984. Larry M. Harris won the Emmy for Outstanding Video Tape Editing for a Series in 1983.[35]

text: Isabel Sanford was nominated for seven consecutive Best Actress Emmys, from 1979 until 1985.[35] Her victory in 1981 made her the first African-American actress to win an Emmy for Best Actress in a Comedy Series,[1][19][36] and the second to win any Emmy Award; Gail Fisher, who played Peggy on the TV show Mannix, preceded her in 1970. Sanford was also the recipient of five of the eight Golden Globe Awards nominations the program received.[37]

text: DVD and Internet releases[edit]

text: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment released the first six seasons of The Jeffersons on DVD in Region 1 between 2002 and 2007.[38] These releases have been discontinued and are now out of print.

text: On August 27, 2013, it was announced that Mill Creek Entertainment had acquired the rights to various television series from the Sony Pictures library including The Jeffersons.[39] They subsequently re-released the first two seasons on DVD on May 20, 2014.[40]

text: On August 8, 2014, it was announced that Shout! Factory had acquired the rights to the series; they subsequently released the complete series on DVD in a 33-disc collection on December 9, 2014.[41][42]

text: On April 28, 2015, Shout! released season 7 on DVD in Region 1.[43] Season 8 was released on August 11, 2015.[44]

text: As of 2016, all eleven seasons of The Jeffersons are available for online streaming on the STARZ network.[45][46]

text:
DVD Name
Ep #
Release Date

The Complete First Season
13
August 6, 2002
May 20, 2014 (re-release)

The Complete Second Season
24
May 13, 2003
May 20, 2014 (re-release)

The Complete Third Season
24
April 12, 2005

The Complete Fourth Season
26
October 11, 2005

The Complete Fifth Season
24
August 15, 2006

The Complete Sixth Season
24
March 27, 2007

The Complete Seventh Season
20
April 28, 2015

The Complete Eighth Season
25
August 11, 2015

The Complete Series
253
December 9, 2014


document_title: The Fat Duck

question_text: when does the fat duck open in melbourne

text: The Fat Duck

text: Description[edit]

text: The Fat Duck is located in Bray in the High Street. Chef proprietor Heston Blumenthal has owned the premises since it opened at the location in 1995. It is not the only Michelin three-star restaurant in Bray, the other being Michel Roux's restaurant The Waterside Inn. As of 2017, it is one of only five restaurants in the entire United Kingdom with three Michelin stars.[9]

text: The restaurant has fourteen tables,[10] and can seat 42 diners.[11] It has a very high proportion of chefs working at the restaurant, 42, equating to one chef per diner.[11] Much of the menu is developed by experimentation: for example, the egg and bacon ice cream came about following Blumenthal investigating the principles of "flavour encapsulation".[12] A research laboratory where Blumenthal and his team develop dishes is two doors away opposite the Hinds Head pub, which is also owned by the chef. It was where the majority of the laboratory scenes for the television series Heston Blumenthal: In Search of Perfection were filmed. The lab equipment includes a centrifuge which is used to make chocolate wine, and a vacuum oven.[13] The restaurant takes reservations up to 2 months in advance, and in 2011 it was receiving some 30,000 calls for reservations per day, although that figure also included people who couldn't get through and were redialling.[14]

text: Menu[edit]

text: Blumenthal was inspired as a teenager by trips to the Michelin-starred restaurants in France and the work of Harold McGee. McGee's work in particular led him to question traditional cooking techniques and approaches which resulted in combinations which may at first appear unusual.[15] Blumenthal incorporates psychology and the perception of diners into his dishes, explaining, "For example, eat sardine on toast sorbet for the first time, confusion will reign as the brain will be trying to tell the palate to expect a dessert and you will therefore be tasting more sweetness than actually exists."[16] The restaurant serves a fourteen-course tasting menu.[17]

text: Dishes served include palate cleansers made of vodka and green tea, frozen in liquid nitrogen,[18] a snail porridge that was described by one food critic as "infamous",[11] and ice creams of both crab, and egg and bacon, each of which resulted in increased media attention for the restaurant.[19] The mock turtle soup has an Alice in Wonderland theme, where a fob watch formed of freeze-dried beef stock covered with gold leaf is dropped into a tea cup and has a beef stock "tea" poured over it that dissolves the gold and the watch. A plate of ox tongue and vegetables is served alongside it to place into the soup. Toast sandwiches are served as a side dish.[20][21][22] It had been developed for an appearance on Heston's Feasts, and was afterwards added to the menu at the restaurant.[23] Dishes are served with additional sensory inputs, such as "Sounds of the Sea", a plate of seafood served with a seafood foam on top of a "beach" of tapioca, breadcrumbs and eel. Alongside the dish, diners are given an iPod to listen to crashing waves whilst they eat.[24] Other additional sensory components include "The smell of the Black Forest" that accompanies a kirsch ice cream.[14]

text: History[edit]

text: The Fat Duck is located in a 16th-century cottage that was further modified in the 19th and 20th centuries. Prior to the restaurant opening in the location, it was a public house called The Ringers. The building was Grade II listed by English Heritage on 2 May 1989.[25] When the restaurant opened in 1995, the kitchen was staffed by owner Heston Blumenthal and one other employee. At the time the restaurant was serving meals in the style of a French bistro, such as lemon tarts, and steak and chips. Blumenthal later said that science had already begun to influence the cooking at this early stage, as already on the menu were his Triple Cooked Chips, which were developed to stop the potato from going soft.[15]

text: The restaurant came close to going bankrupt, Blumenthal sold his house, his car and many of his possessions in order to keep the restaurant afloat.[15] After four years, the restaurant was awarded its first Michelin star in the 1999 list.[16] Blumenthal worked with Professor Peter Barham of the University of Bristol, and developed a menu of dishes through experimentation such as slow-cooked lamb which avoids shocking the fibres in the meat and causing them to seize. By 2000, techniques were being used such as cooking vegetables in mineral water after discovering that the levels of calcium in tap water causes their discolouration, and freezing cuttlefish to break down the molecules in them in order to increase their tenderness.[26] In 2001 it was awarded a second Michelin star, and was also named Restaurant of the Year by The Automobile Association.[27]

text: In 2004, the restaurant was awarded three Michelin stars, becoming one of three restaurants in the United Kingdom to hold that level of recognition alongside the Waterside Inn, also in Bray, and Restaurant Gordon Ramsay in London.[28] It was the fastest that a restaurant had gone from one to three stars in the UK. During the same year, the restaurant was ranked second in the world behind The French Laundry by The World's 50 Best Restaurants.[29] The restaurant also received the title of Square Meal BMW Best UK Restaurant 2004.[30] The following year the listing ranked The Fat Duck as the best restaurant in the world,[31] At the first Front of House Awards in 2007, the restaurant won the awards for Overall Service and Front Desk of the Year.[32]

text: In 2008, Blumenthal published The Big Fat Duck Cookbook,[33] following his BBC series 'Heston Blumenthal: In Search of Perfection.'[34]

text: On 19 November 2012, British citizen Ivan Aranto Herrera Jorge and Swede Carl Magnus Lindgren, two senior members of The Fat Duck restaurant, were killed on Chai Wan Road, Hong Kong in a traffic accident when their taxi was hit by two buses.[35] They died along with the taxi driver, Wong Kim-chung. A further 56 people were injured in the accident.[36] Blumenthal had been in Hong Kong and was travelling in a separate cab at the time of the crash.[37]

text: On 31 March 2014, Heston Blumenthal announced he would be closing the restaurant for renovations for 6 months and temporarily relocating it with its entire team to Crown Towers, Melbourne, Australia. The restaurant will be called The Fat Duck for 6 months before being renamed Dinner by Heston Blumenthal.[38] This will be the second restaurant with that name and will be Blumenthal's first restaurant outside of Britain, and his sixth in total. This temporary closure of the Bray location caused the restaurant to become ineligible for assessment for the 2016 Michelin Guide, thus losing its 3-starred status which it regained the following year.[3][4][5]

text: Food scare, closure, and reopening[edit]

text: On 27 February 2009, Blumenthal closed his restaurant temporarily after a number of customers reported feeling unwell at different times.[39] By 3 March the source of the outbreak was still unclear but sabotage had been ruled out. A spokesman for the restaurant said "All this leads us to believe that it [the health scare] has not come from the restaurant and we expect to be given the all clear."[40] On 6 March it was reported that 400 people had stated they had felt unwell after eating at the restaurant.[41] Boxing promoter Frank Warren said he was "very disappointed" with his treatment after becoming sick following his visit. He said "Everything was fabulous about the evening – the food, the setting, the service, it was unbelievably good but unfortunately, afterwards, all of us were ill".[42]

text: The restaurant reopened on 12 March 2009.[43] The cause of the illness was later given by the Health Protection Agency as norovirus, which was thought to originate from oysters which had been harvested from beds contaminated with sewage.[44] The virus was spread further after being contracted by staff members.[45] The restaurant was criticised for its cleaning methods and its slow response to the incident.[44] Complaints of illness from customers totalled 529.[44]

text: The Fat Duck had received negative publicity regarding health standards before, when a food and safety test in 2004 found that "three out of the four samples were found to be unsatisfactory".[46]

text: Reception[edit]

text: Fodor's describes the restaurant as "extraordinary" and "one of the best restaurants in the country".[47] Frommer's gives the restaurant three stars, grading it as "exceptional".[48]

text: In September 1996, Ben Rogers ate at the restaurant for The Independent before it had gained any Michelin stars or the awards it has today and while it was still using something close to its original menu. Even so, he discovered that Blumenthal was cooking foie gras in sherry in order to give it a nutty flavour, although Rogers wasn't sure if the nutty flavour was warranted in the dish itself. He did think that a jambonneau of duck was worth praising, describing it as "delicious", but also thought that another dish of monkfish was rubbery in texture. He described the menu itself as "awkwardly written, badly punctuated, and at points quite impenetrable".[49] Following the first Michelin star, David Fingleton visited the restaurant for The Spectator, and said that the experience was "beyond reproach; unsullied pleasure from start to finish".[50]

text: In 2001, Terry Durack reviewed the restaurant for The Independent. He was initially hesitant as he expected tricks straight away and was surprised to find a bowl of normal green olives on the table as he arrived. He didn't think much of a mustard ice cream in a red cabbage gazpacho soup, but described the restaurant as "great" and gave it a score of seventeen out of twenty.[51] Following the third Michelin star, Jan Moir of The Daily Telegraph visited the restaurant but disliked it, saying that "while many of the flavours are politely interesting, the relentless pappy textures of mousses and foams and creams and poached meats really begins to grate".[52] She also thought the restaurant was overpriced, calling it "The Fat Profit".[52]

text: Matthew Fort reviewed the restaurant for The Guardian in 2005, he said that "there is no doubt that the Fat Duck is a great restaurant and Heston Blumenthal the most original and remarkable chef this country has ever produced".[53] A. A. Gill for The Times recommended that people should "eat here at least once to find out what is really going on in your mouth".[54] Also in 2005, German food critic Wolfram Siebeck visited the restaurant complained of the delays in service and of several of the dishes, described the mustard ice cream in a red cabbage gazpacho soup as a "fart of nothingness",[55] while chef Nico Ladenis said of the restaurant, "Someone who makes egg and bacon ice cream is hailed a genius. If you vomit and make ice cream out of it, are you a star?"[29] Tony Naylor of The Guardian enjoyed his trip to the restaurant in 2008, and afterwards criticised those who thought that spending £323.13 on a meal for two at lunchtime was too much.[56]

text: In 2005 the restaurant was ranked 1st on the list of The World's 50 Best Restaurants.[31] After spending 11 years on the list, it has dropped down to 73rd in the top 100.[57] It has been ranked second best on numerous occasions, first behind The French Laundry and then behind El Bulli.[29][58] In 2012, it was ranked in thirteenth place.[59] In 2010, it was named the Best UK Restaurant in the Quintessentially Awards, a scheme run by the Quintessentially Group.[60]

text: In 2009, it was the only restaurant to be given a top score of ten out of ten in the Good Food Guide.[61] The editor of the guide, Elizabeth Carter, explained the reason for the score, "It's extremely rare that a restaurant cooks perfectly on a consistent basis, but we've had so many superlative reports that we're delighted to recognise The Fat Duck as the best restaurant in Britain."[11] It retained that top score through to the 2013 edition of the guide.[citation needed]

text: Gallery of dishes[edit]

text:
Salmon poached in liquorice gel served with an artichoke vanilla mayonnaise

Bavarois of lychee and mango

Violet tartlets and apple-pie toffee wrapped in edible sweet-paper

Truffle toast with parsley and radish

Oyster and passion-fruit jelly on lavender, served in an oyster shell

Hot and cold iced tea

Carrot and orange lolly