Enterprise 4.16: "Divergence"

Written by Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens
Directed by David Barrett

In which Phlox and Archer must race against time to find a cure to the plague spreading throughout the Klingon Empire, before the High Council eradicates the affected populations…


Captain’s Log

This episode presented the writers with a significant challenge. For the most part, the various plot threads had resolutions already built into them: Enterprise would survive its engine trouble, Reed would be more or less exonerated, the Klingon Augment problem would be solved in a fashion consistent with the original series’ version of Klingons, and Section 31 would remain a shadowy sub-compartment of Starfleet Intelligence. It was up to the writers to place each resolution within a satisfactory context, and that’s not always as easy as it seems.

The episode starts off with Phlox struggling to maintain his ethics, despite his life and the lives of those suffering the plague in the balance. Meanwhile, there’s the little matter of rescuing Enterprise, which is where Trip’s service on Columbia intersects with the story. It’s a clever way to get both ships involved in the same mission, to say the least, and it also provides the first act of the episode with an amazing action set piece devoted almost entirely to getting Trip onto Enterprise while the ship is running above Warp 5.

Action sequences haven’t been the forte of Enterprise, since they all blend together after a while. This is definitely something different and exciting. The outcome might be obvious, but that doesn’t take away from the creative solution to moving personnel, using mechanical means only, between two ships moving above the speed of light. The solution uses minimal technobabble (and it’s not hard to accept, unlike some “Next Generation” examples), using a strong score and great direction/editing to keep the pacing at the highest level. Sure, it wastes a lot of episode time, but considering how little there is to the rest of the episode, plot-wise, that makes sense.

Archer resumes his pressure on Reed, and this time, Reed capitulates. The writers do their best to mask the fact that Reed caves rather quickly once the second part of the story resumes, and the conversation between Archer and Harris is quite good. The writers definitively mention (as many fans overlooked) that Section 31 was always a reference to the original Starfleet charter. This indirectly answers one of the long-standing questions about the Starfleet of “Enterprise”; on some level, the Earth Starfleet charter was incorporated or subsumed by the Federation Starfleet charter. (Note that the original series seemed to emphasize a Human Starfleet still transitioning into something interplanetary.)

Back at Kuvat Colony, the Klingons are getting restless. Antaak is working to resolve his guilt over his part in the Klingon Augment experiments, and if that means creating a cure that would allow millions to survive with nothing more than an altered appearance, so be it. As hinted in the previous episode, the entire situation becomes a question of racing against the deadline placed by the High Council. Phlox needs to cut corners left and right to get the information he needs to create a cure, which constantly places him in the same ethical quagmire that he found himself with since his abduction.

This progresses in discrete stages, which then mirror the structure of the episode. The second act is the process of setting the stage for the deadline while Archer gathers information on everything Reed was trying to conceal. There’s also a little time for General K’Vagh to hear from some of the Klingons that have already succumbed. This is interesting because it gives insight into the effect of the change on Klingon culture and self-image. Laneth claims that the change has weakened her with Human emotions and fears, stealing away their honor and strength, but the irony is that the Augment DNA was meant to make them stronger and more intelligent. If anything, this is an expression of how the change is psychologically undermining the confidence of the Klingons thus affected.

This is not merely idle talk; it drives at the heart of the Klingon struggle, over more than one generation, to get the cure and restore their people. If the affected Klingons were able to accept their new appearance with uniform pride, without fear of prejudice, then it might not have mattered. But Klingons eventually took the effort to reverse the genetic manipulation, and that suggests that body image is very important to Klingons as a whole. (Ironically, since “smooth” Klingons were military commanders in the original series, even Klingon society was willing to accept honor and courage among those without the “correct” body type. But were any of them politically powerful? Probably not!)

Phlox finally manages to pull together four possible “cure” candidates, requiring four volunteers. That leaves three Klingons with a death sentence, especially if the identified cure can’t be replicated quickly enough to satisfy the High Council. For their own part, the Council has decided that eradication is a better solution than betting on Phlox, and if that means killing millions, then so be it. Of course, this is a decidedly problematic resolution to the problem, since that would mean killing millions, perhaps even billions, of Klingons in an effort to eliminate plague victims. It’s hard to imagine that the Klingons would be able to decimate their population without negative impact.

Of course, the High Council, represented by Krell, has already played with the lives of the Klingon people. They joined an effort by Section 31 (or its very early precursor) to conduct black project Augment experiments, and as one would expect, the Klingons took advantage of Human naivete. Harris might have claimed that the entire effort was safeguarding Earth by stabilizing a dangerous alien threat, but if that were the case, aiding them in the Augment cause by handing them Phlox (on the hopes that he would resolve the plague issue by fixing the Augment project in a successful manner) doesn’t track. Harris’ goals remain somewhat elusive, which is one of the unfortunate aspects of the episode.

The episode boils down to Enterprise and Columbia stemming off the efforts by the Klingon High Council to eradicate the colony, so that Phlox can complete his work on a cure. Whereas the solution to making the threat to Enterprise was well conceived, the final act doesn’t come together nearly as well. Phlox explains, in a vague way, that the strain of the Augment virus that holds promise for a cure requires a Human to generate antibodies that can then be used to pass the cure on to Klingons. Archer, of course, becomes that antibody machine.

On the face of it, the effect of the altered virus on Archer makes sense. If the virus was mutagenic in the first place, making Klingons more Human, then it could very well have the reverse effect on Humans. All well and good, but the scenes on the colony, used to increase the tension of the battle overhead, are absolutely terrible. Bakula, who has grown in the role over the past four years, doesn’t depict Archer’s struggle with the virus convincingly at all. It’s so bad that it actually breaks the intended tension.

That said, sending up a device that infects Krell and his crew is a quick and dirty solution that works well enough to end the crisis. The final scene reinforces the “body image” element, and also smoothes over (forgive the pun) the effect on the Empire as a whole. On the one hand, this is logical, since the Klingons would probably become more isolated as they deal with the social upheaval of the plague. On the other, like with the Vulcan social crisis, it would have been interesting to see more of the aftermath. But with the series ending with the current season, the subject is more likely to be covered in future novels than on screen.

While Archer has more than enough reason to let Reed off the hook, it sends an interesting message to the rest of the crew. Archer and Reed can’t tell anyone about the intelligence group operating under the authority of Section 31, but everyone was aware, on some level, that Reed had sabotaged Phlox’s rescue. For Reed to return to duty without comment ought to have raised eyebrows.

After an episode that was packed with several subplots and exciting plot elements, it all comes together is an uneven and predictable way. The writers delivered their usual crisp dialogue, and the brief explorations of Klingon reaction to the effect of the virus were well done. But in the end, there’s very little shock value. This is the same problem that “The Augments”, “Kir’Shara”, and “The Aenar” faced: once the pieces are in place to resolve the problem, the nature of the series is such that the answers are already common knowledge. The solution to the Klingon question was incredibly clever and highly consistent, but in the end, after that was accomplished, the concluding episode was only necessary to extricate the characters out of the situation that revealed the crisis and solution in the first place.

That’s not to say that this is a horrible episode. For the most part, it’s everything that a fan could ask for. It’s simply very hard to overcome the fact that each arc essentially ends in a pre-determined position. The writers do everything possible to make the journey to that conclusion as strong as possible, to their credit, and only Bakula lets them down with that oddly pathetic performance in the final act. For that matter, it’s easier to see this story as a novel-based concept adapted to the screen; the events sometimes feel like they would read better than they were rendered in the episode itself. It’s not just this episode or scenario that falls in this category; Coto has clearly been trying to take the “fan fiction” approach to the fourth season, and for the most part, it works.

But for those still looking for a reason why the series has struggled from the beginning, this is another clue. As mentioned, the major drawback is that the resolution of the crisis, on all fronts, has already been a matter of franchise continuity for some time. There’s no way to address items of continuity near and dear to fans without this happening, and so there are few surprises at the end of each arc. Similarly, many Trek fans openly criticized the decision to set “Enterprise” before the original series because the end results were set in stone (or as much as they can be in the Trek canon!). While the end results might appeal to hardcore Trek fans, ultimately, for those looking for the next step forward, this series was a giant step backward. As this episode demonstrates, that might have been a valid criticism.


Final Analysis

Overall, this episode was not as solid as the first half of the story, since some of the creativity was eliminated by the fact that the outcome was already apparent before the story even began. The final act also includes a curiously poor acting job by Bakula, which threatens to break the suspension of disbelief. The writers make the resolution of the Klingon crisis as interesting as possible, but since most of the revelations were already given in the previous episode, this installment feels lacking.

Writing: 2/2
Acting: 1/2
Direction: 2/2
Style: 3/4

Final Rating: 8/10

Season Average (as of 4.16): 7.6

Alias 4.8: "Echoes"

Written by Andre Nemec and Josh Appelbaum
Directed by Daniel Attias

In which Anna Espinosa returns, working for ex-Covenant terrorists, and when she uses Nadia against Sydney to get what she wants, revelations about Rambaldi’s endgame surface…


Status Report

Of all the cricitisms leveled at this season, largely due to the change in format and the network’s foolish interference, the one that stands as the most fundamental was the sidelining of the Rambaldi mythology and everything that went along with it. Granted, there’s been much talk and innuendo regarding Irina Derevko, who’s entire life was devoted to the fulfillment of Rambaldi’s grand design, but there were several elements that were related specifically to Sydney and Nadia. And of course, Sloane’s motivations are never far from his own attempts to fulfill Irina’s plans for his own purpose.

However, there were indications in the previous episode that the writers had a long-term plan in mind, even if the shuffling of episodes made it hard to see clearly. Intentional or not, it’s good that the previous episode did much to foreshadow possible divisions among the members of APO, because this episode brings back the Rambaldi mythology in a big way. Not only is it clear that Sloane has not changed his underlying value system, but the writers didn’t forget the main strengths of the third season: Vaughn and Sark have even more personal reason to hate each other, and that prophesy about Sydney and Nadia being deadly to one another hasn’t gone away.

In fact, if anything, it has finally been given a better connection to the overall Rambaldi mythology. The whole idea of “The Passenger” felt tacked onto the already confusing and unexplained concept of “The Chosen One”, which was only really used to good effect in one episode of the third season (“Full Disclosure”). Nadia’s existence seemed like another attempt to give the third season a feeling of relevance, since Lauren’s presence didn’t pan out as well as the writers had hoped.

The overall mythology seems to boil down to this:

Irina and Sloane, at some point more than 30 years earlier, discovered much about Rambaldi. Irina apparently knew much more than Sloane at that point, though it’s hard to judge, since he is very good at concealing just how much he knows and when he’s simply feigning ignorance to get information where he wants it to be. At any rate, Irina came to understand the core Rambaldi vision of the future: that two sisters, each brought into realization of Rambaldi’s design through their involvement in its execution, would ultimately battle one another to the death.

Sydney, “The Chosen One”, would be the one to bring about Rambaldi’s design, and through anger, use it to “render the greatest power unto utter desolation”. It’s not clear what the “greatest power” is, though one could argue that it is not a nation or alliance. (There has always been some confusion about the fact that the Chosen One was never meant to see Mt. Subasio, but since the prophecy specifically notes that it would have been “without pretense”, Sydney’s intentional trip there could easily fit within the meaning of Rambaldi’s words.)

Nadia, on the other hand, is “The Passenger”, the one who was meant to lead the followers of Rambaldi, once identified by The Telling, to the next (presumably final) piece of the Rambaldi puzzle. The process involved injecting Nadia with a concoction that was, in essence, Rambaldi’s genetic memory, thus allowing her to transcribe Rambaldi’s directions to the location of this critical device or object. Supposedly, according to the season premiere, Sloane and Nadia found that device, only to hand it over to the CIA. This allowed Sloane to once again regain a measure of pardon from the US government, but also suggested that there’s still another step to the Rambaldi mystery.

This episode finally unveils part of that step. The Magnific Order of Rambaldi has always known that “The Chosen One” and “The Passenger” would do battle over something, and thus one or both would be killed in the process. This episode places that conflict at the very heart of the mythology. The so-called “Eye of Rambaldi” (), the symbol used over and over again by the mystic, is really meant to show two equal but opposite powers (the two sisters) vying for some central, key object. It’s not hard to make a guess as to the nature of that object: the most obvious round object is, after all, the world.

Knowing Rambaldi, of course, it’s probably closer to say that it’s not the world or control of it that stands in the balance, but rather, the fate of those in the world. And what Rambaldi saw as vital to the fate of the world may not be so obvious. Whatever the case, the writers go one step further, suggesting that the two sisters would only reluctantly find themselves on opposite sides, or so Nadia’s vision strongly suggests. Something will drive them apart, and in the process, it seems that Sydney is the one fated to die.

The purpose of the Covenant, it seems, was twofold: create the “second coming of Rambaldi” by taking the genetic material of the Chosen One and melding it with the DNA hidden in a Rambaldi device, while also locating the Passenger and getting her to reveal, through the genetic memory goo, the location of an unknown Rambaldi object. If the writers are trying to fix the mistakes of the third season, then they would want to reveal how the two projects were linked. One theory, developed in the third season and still viable, is that Rambaldi never died and that a device like the one in “The Passage” was used to keep him in stasis until his new body could be created.

This theory would place Sloane’s motivations into an interesting context. Did Nadia really see what Sloane managed to find, and did Sloane really give the CIA the device he found using the coordinates Nadia provided? Or did Sloane realize that the device found revealed the location of Rambaldi, and APO is his means to some end, his way of controlling the circumstances under which Sydney and Nadia will do battle?

Whatever the case, Irina’s true condition is very important to the whole picture. The Covenant fell apart, having apparently failed in each of their main tasks, but Irina’s legacy is not so easily broken. If Irina is alive, then Jack and Sloane are working together for some unknown purpose related to that fact, and for Jack to work with Sloane, there has to be something more at work, Jack almost seems sympathetic towards Sloane at times, perhaps suggesting that he recognizes that Irina played both of them, indeed all of them, towards some still-undefined goal. Is APO meant as a force to uncover and defeat Irina’s plan to set Sydney and Nadia against one another, or Sloane’s Trojan Horse gambit, as mentioned earlier, to co-opt Irina’s plan, only to replace it with one of his own? Or, what if Jack and Sloane are working with Irina, all for the hopes of saving Sydney and Nadia from the Rambaldi design, now that it is coming to fruition?

The fact that a few short scenes, carefully placed within the context of the episode, could elicit such a deep and complex re-consideration of the mythology demonstrates, without a shred of doubt, the continued viability and necessity of the Rambaldi concept for the health of the series. At the same time, JJ’s intent has been proven valid; by letting the mythology slip into the background, informing rather than directly shaping events, it’s that much better when it does return to the forefront.

Anna’s involvement with the plot, and her apparent desire to bring about the division between Sydney and Nadia, however long-term, suggests a number of things. For one, it has already been strongly hinted that Irina constantly reshapes and redefines the nature and composition of her organization, all to ensure that her rivals and enemies must endlessly catch up to her design. If Irina is still the enemy, and not working underground for Jack and Sloane, then Anna could be working for Irina to bring about the Rambaldi endgame. If Irina is not the enemy, and Jack and Sloane are working with her, then perhaps Anna is working with someone new to bring about the conflict.

Whatever the case, Jack’s comment about Anna’s apparent resurrection, and how many people who are supposed to be dead are not, could have more than the obvious implication. It’s clear that this is a hint about Irina, but what if it also refers to Rambaldi? This would be a theory that could explain everything about the fourth season. What if a resurrected Rambaldi, utterly committed to using his followers to bring about his grand design for the world, is the thing that Sloane discovered, after Nadia left his expedition? Could Sloane and Irina have gone heretic on the object of their obsession, having perhaps seen the madness of his plans? If so, Jack would be the obvious ally, since he’s the other parent involved in the creation of the two sisters, and he would have a vested interest in protecting them. And since all three love hiding the truth from everyone else, Jack’s philosophy in “The Awful Truth” now has a possible deeper meaning: that both Sydney and Nadia are being manipulated by Jack and Sloane to ensure they remain unaware of what Irina is doing and the extent of the forces trying to drive them apart. In other words, the de-emphasis of Rambaldi is not simply to satisfy the network, but might also be viewed as the attempt to channel Sydney and Nadia into areas where they won’t encounter the Rambaldi endgame unless absolutely necessary.

Anna’s fate was never shown on screen, and JJ had always noted that her return was prevented by her rather full schedule. Gina Torres’ schedule may not be as problematic as before, but there was also the issue of how much time has passed. Thankfully, the writers managed to bring her back in a context that made perfect sense from the point of view of the character and her previously established motivations. One didn’t have to know about Anna’s past history with Sydney to understand the depth of their animosity, and that was key to making it work for new viewers.

Equally, Sark’s involvement was in keeping with his previously established personality, and he was pulled into the story in a logical context. Sark’s part in the story was actually harder to work out, in terms of the new viewers, because he was ultimately more intricately involved in the series’ history. The entire situation with Lauren alone is rather complicated. The writers simply take the challenge head-on and place Sark and Vaughn in a battle of wills. Both try to establish a sense of superiority; in this case, Sark seems to win the first match.

Beyond strong connections to the series mythology, this episode also has something else that many episodes this season have lacked: a strong sense of pacing. The episode starts off quickly and doesn’t slow down or take shortcuts. It’s great seeing Jack take command, and the best character elements of the season thus far continue to find expression, adding to the dynamic established in the previous episode.

There is, unfortunately, one major element that doesn’t make sense: Sloane’s role. In the teaser, Sloane makes it very clear that the CIA agreement placing him in charge of APO stipulated that he step down, at least temporarily, if certain people or situation arise that represent a conflict of interest. He places Jack in charge, explaining that the team is not allowed to tell him anything or allow him to be involved. All well and good, but then on more than one occasion, he manages to insert himself without penalty. While this certainly backs the theory that Jack is sympathetic to Sloane’s agenda, at least where their desires are aligned, it would have been the perfect moment for Sydney or Dixon to follow through on their previous threats.

However, Sloane’s involvement, in those key moments, was necessary to place the Rambaldi material into perspective. His tone when discussing Rambaldi is reverent, almost needlessly so, but he is also clearly concerned for Sydney and Nadia both. Taken as a plot point, the fact that Sydney and Dixon ignore the breaches of conduct speaks to the seriousness of the situation. When even the most problematic elements of the episode work to its advantage, it’s hard not to get excited about the prospects for the future.


Final Analysis

Overall, this episode is probably the best of the season, if only because it finally brings back elements of the Rambaldi mythology and conflicts beyond the characters associated with APO. The foreshadowing for plot threads later in the season continues apace, neatly ushering in the “complication” phase of the season. With the new viewers more or less caught up, hopefully this marks the return to the way “Alias” used to be.

Writing: 2/2
Acting: 2/2
Direction: 2/2
Style: 3/4

Final Rating: 9/10

Season Average (as of 4.8): 7.3

Lost 1.17: "...In Translation"

Written by Javier Grillo-Marxuach and Leonard Dick
Directed by Tucker Gates

In which Michael’s raft is set blaze, and the perpetrator appears to be Jin, which leads to the culmination of his tensions with his wife, while Sayid and Shannon find common ground…


Status Report

After the excellent previous episode, it was almost inevitable that this one would be something of a letdown. The writers do everything they can to maintain a level of quality, but there’s always going to be the subjective interpretation of the audience involved, never mind the specific production challenges that come with the territory. And ultimately, different writers have different voices and concepts of pacing, which taken in relation to the director, can vastly change the final product.

All that said, this is not a bad episode in the least. It’s not as dramatically tight as the previous episode, but as with “House of the Rising Sun”, this is an inevitable consequence of staying true to the subtitling convention established for the Korean characters. Such a convention is risky for many reasons, all brought up in the review for the earlier episode, but it does give the series a considerable mark of authenticity.

Several character threads related to the “minor” characters (Michael, Walt, Jin, Sun) clash together in a major way, which ought to please those fans clamoring for forward momentum. The Jin/Sun relationship has been building towards a confrontation for most of the season, and in keeping with the theme of the series thus far, the current resolution takes the characters into a new understanding of themselves and each other.

This is essentially the beginning of the “resolution” phase of the season, at least in terms of the character and plot arcs that the writers plan on addressing in the first season. The rest of the season ought to spiral into a series of revelations about connections between characters and hidden motivations. In a sense, Sawyer’s story in the previous episode was a clever transition out of the “complication” phase, so this episode doesn’t represent a major change in the series format or style.

The big news, of course, is that Sun’s secret is out, and Jin is rather displeased with the fact that Sun was keeping secrets from him. It certainly doesn’t help that Sun was learning to speak English so she could escape him in America, when he was planning in parallel to take her to America to escape her father’s obligations and reaffirm their marriage. The dovetailing with “House of the Rising Sun” is very well done, and with the new context afforded by Jin’s side of the story.

It’s not entirely clear, but it seems like Sun’s father used Jin’s desire to marry his daughter to place Jin in a compromising situation. Perhaps it was convenient for Sun’s father to select a husband for his willful and gorgeous daughter, someone he could keep under strict control to ensure that he would continue to control Sun’s life. Whatever the case, Jin goes from being a man striving for a woman beyond his station to a man broken and compromised in every possible way. Daniel Dae Kim does an incredible job of communicating strong emotion to the American audience, all without speaking more than a word or two of English.

Unlike Sawyer, however, whose self-loathing in the previous episode placed nearly everything he’s done on the island into clear perspective, Jin’s decisions are still somewhat hard to judge. It seems easy enough to conclude that he ran from the others because he was sure that he would be blamed, but when he was caught, why taunt Michael into beating him to a pulp? Was it simply to make Michael look bad, or was it some kind of indirect self-punishment for his actions in Korea?

At least his final decision to help Michael build a new raft makes metaphorical sense. More than any other episode, the metaphor of the caves (embracing a new life) and the beach (hanging on to the old, resisting redemption) plays a major role. Locke sounds like his namesake in a more direct fashion, explaining that he sees the island as a chance for wiping clean the sins of the past and finding a path more true to each and every person. (The fact that he attaches something of a mystical air to that philosophy is beside the point in this episode.) Jin, rejecting redemption and hanging on to his guilt from his past, fueled by his anger at Sun and personal shame, is no longer trying to work things out. So he moves from the path of redemption into a personal limbo.

Sun, on the other hand, has apparently taken another step, however distressing, towards a new way of life. She is now free to do as she wants, and it certainly agrees with her. Now that the rest of the survivors know that she can speak English, there will be distrust, but there will also be new opportunities for forging friendships and learning a new way of life. If she remains at the caves, this will be a sign that Sun is moving on, accepting the “tabula rasa” offered by the island.

Jin and Sun are not the only ones moving in separate directions. Michael, despite his experience in “Special”, is still dedicated to getting off the island as soon as possible. Less surprising, but perfectly logical, is Sawyer’s continued efforts to resist the promise of a new start. The two of them are firmly entrenched in the idea of holding on to their existing struggles. But Walt has always been more interested in what the island has to offer, and he doesn’t want to get back to the old way of life. It makes perfect sense that he would set the raft on fire (through desire or otherwise), just as it makes perfect sense that Locke would see through Walt’s tacit acceptance of Michael’s attempts at fatherhood.

Locke uses the destruction of the raft, and the fact that the rest of the survivors don’t know about Walt’s part in it, as a pretext for a moment that fits his shamanic role. He casts Ethan’s group, and perhaps even Danielle, into a vague and incredibly threatening context, as an unseen but ever-present enemy that they need to acknowledge collectively. He instantly sets them apart as a faceless band of shadows, touching on but deftly avoiding the mystical concept that those “others” have failed the test presented by the island itself. This could become very important in terms of the characters’ psychology going into the final episodes of the season. (Anyone else notice that he also has the power of changing the location and shape of blood stains on his face?)

Like last episode, Jack is barely present, coming into the story only when his leadership is needed, like when the relative peace on the island is disturbed by Jin and Michael’s escalating conflict. While he still has plenty of issues to work through, he’s becoming the leader that Locke saw inside of him in “White Rabbit”. In sharp contrast to the battle of wills at play several episodes earlier, Locke and Sayid seem to have fallen back into the role of Jack’s “cabinet”, each advising Jack in their area of expertise, then falling in line with whatever Jack decides.

Kate is also in the background, playing the role of Sun’s advisor. She serves to remind the audience that Sun has had more than enough chances to tell Jin about her ability to speak English. She’s also had plenty of chances to commit to her husband fully, rather than simply maintain her current transitional state. It is surprising, however, to see that Kate hadn’t joined Sawyer as a passenger on Michael’s raft. That suggests that she’s still on the fence regarding the possibility of a new life (something she seems to run to, only to fall back into established patterns).

Sawyer, fresh off his uncomfortable look into his own motivations in the previous episode, shows little desire for change this time around. That might sound like bad continuity at first, but it makes sense that Sawyer’s slow and uncertain transition from self-loathing packrat to upstanding citizen would take more than a few bad memories to escalate. Besides, he seems to find some value in letting someone else become the group’s punching bag, and while he went more than a little overboard, he was indirectly looking after the will of the community.

Sayid wisely realizes that Michael and Jin need to settle their accounts and just get it over with, before more resentment turns into a justification for far worse than a few punches. He remembers from “House of the Rising Sun” how little it took for the two to go for the kill, and he’s faced his own demons for his decision to torture Sawyer soon after. Beyond that, his tentative interest in Shannon is rather sweet, and it’s fun to see a man usually so sure of himself stumbling over Shannon’s open interest.

Charlie and Claire are now operating as something of a couple, though still struggling themselves with the idea of letting go of the past. Ironically, where Charlie was ready to step back into familiar patterns, putting Claire at arm’s length, Claire was forced to make the decision all over again. Both of them were thereby placing on equal footing, and together, they seem to be building a new future together (and perhaps, including her child).

Hurley’s most important contribution was not his potential as a comic device, though of course, the final scene was a brilliant moment (especially his reaction to seeing how similar he was to Claire!). Hurley played the same role for Jin that Kate played for Sun, providing one last chance at turning from the path of bitterness. The importance of the scenes in “Whatever the Case May Be” is now quite clear. Careful viewers will also notice that Hurley was on Korean television for some reason; one would think that it was an early tease related to his story, which comes with the next episode.

Boone and Shannon seem to be following the same kind of pattern as Jin and Sun or Michael and Walt. For all that Boone has decided to follow Locke’s example as something of an acolyte, he’s letting Sayid’s possible relationship with Shannon impede his psychological progress. This is something that Locke cannot have missed, and he’s already shown a growing impatience with Boone’s weaknesses. Boone has shown a desire to take on more responsibility than he can handle, and if he decides to make a grand gesture to restore Locke’s faith, he could find himself the first major victim of the series.

Shannon, on the other hand, seems to have taken Locke’s advice to heart. With the prospect of finding a way back to the real world becoming less and less likely, Shannon has little reason to cling to her old ways. Besides, Sayid has been shown as a dependable man in need of a reason to let go of the past, and Shannon’s needs mesh well with his own. Never mind the fact that Shannon knows how to paint a picture; Maggie delivered that line about a rope and Saturday night in a way that any man would love to hear, especially from her!

The final scene is perhaps indicative of how the episode compares with the previous installment of the series. Instead of ending on a perfect grace note to a highly focused and perfectly paced story, this episode ends with a comic scene that has nothing to do with the central events. While there was a central theme of growing apart or coming together, the former embodied in the Jin/Sun dynamic and the latter embodied in the Sayid/Shannon romance, the structure of the episode wasn’t as strong as it could have been. Add to that an over-reliance on the hand-held camera work, which was far more noticeable in this episode than in the past, and the final product isn’t quite as solid.

As already mentioned, this episode was also up against the same challenge that plagued “House of the Rising Sun”. Much of the episode requires the use of subtitles, and that can be annoying to many viewers. (Never mind that winter storm warnings in the Northeast covered the subtitles during the teaser!) This time, the effect was partially mitigated by the clever intersection of Sun’s previously established point of view and Jin’s fresh perspective. Now, the character development has given the writers an extra tool in overcoming that challenge.

Now is as good a time as any to address the ongoing issue of the recent ratings drop. In many ways, this was inevitable. The network was savvy enough to air nearly the entire first half of the season straight through the fall, but there’s the price that comes when the remaining episodes have to be strung out over nearly 20 weeks of programming time. The early episodes built up huge word of mouth, leading to very strong ratings; now, some casual viewers have dropped off as episodes have been missed, and other viewers have decided not to let the story play itself out on its own timetable.

The fact is, the ratings have been hovering around the same number of estimated viewers since the beginning of the season. A second season is practically a given. There have been some ups and downs, but nothing that one wouldn’t expect over time. The same is true of the quality of the series. Even when it’s not as good as it could be, it still covers all the basics and then some, providing some of the best and most consistent character development on television in quite some time. This episode is no exception.


Final Analysis

Overall, this episode was not quite as strong as the previous installment, largely due to a less focused approach and some spotty camera work. The extensive subtitling once again presents a challenge, but this time, the inherent drama helps the writers to overcome that difficulty. Character development is once again the order of the day, and it would appear that the season has shifted from “complication” to “resolution”, promising more defining moments in the future.

Writing: 2/2
Acting: 2/2
Direction: 1/2
Style: 2/4

Final Rating: 7/10

Season Average (as of 1.16): 7.8

Roswell 2.12: "We Are Family"

Written by Gretchen Berg and Aaron Harberts
Directed by David Grossman

In which Valenti must face the consequences when he continues to defy authority, while Michael discovers something unusual when another search for Laurie leads to an old photograph…


Status Report

This is the continuation of the so-called “Hybrid Chronicles”, as the network collectively called them, but this was really just the second part of a four-episode arc that took place during the sweeps period. Like the episode that came before it, certain elements were retooled after the announcement that the season would be extended to 22 episodes (which ultimately became 21). In particular, the treatment of Alex and his return was very specific, meant to lead into the plot thread that was still being worked out as the assumptive series-ending arc.

The focus of the story, however, is still very much on Valenti and the cost of his haphazard actions on the behalf of the hybrids themselves. More plot elements are dropped concerning Laurie Dupree and the reasons behind her abduction, but this is mostly about Valenti’s rapid decline. It’s also an interesting look at how the teens react to the realization that defeating the threat from the Skins didn’t let them off the hook. If anything, after months of holding on to some concept of predestination, the sudden lack of direction has led to mental errors and bad judgment.

The opening scene demonstrates how far Valenti let things get out of control. Isabel may have been right, but she and Max never considered the impact on Valenti, especially with someone breathing down his neck the entire time. With Laurie found and a ton of questions still to be answered, there’s no time to make sure the stories are consistent. Valenti, unable to think quickly on his feet, makes more than enough mistakes to bury his chances of getting out of the situation cleanly.

Laurie, however, quickly escalates the situation by leaving the hospital. That places the entire area into a new sense of paranoia, since no one’s sure whether or not the original kidnapper has struck again. Because of the way the case was handled (and as seen in the third season, the slow but steady return of the Special Unit’s subversive tactics), Agent Duff of the FBI is sent in to find Laurie. She convinces Valenti to help out on the case, claiming ambition, but it’s probably closer to the truth to assume that she’s there to observe Valenti and see if she can assess his role in terms of the children in town. Just by pursuing that, her reports would be perfect for the reborn Special Unit to study.

Adding to the list of potential suspects, Alex returns from his time away in Sweden. Since the characters never talked about the fact that he left, the details are kept incredibly vague, beyond what Alex tells them upon his return. This plays into the intentions of the writers for the “final” plot thread, since it lets the rest of the characters make assumptions based on Alex’s apparent memories and those slides. But it also represents something of a shift in Alex’s intended role for this arc. After all, when the story was first conceived, episode 14 was the end of the series. So Alex’s return, and his changed behavior, was probably originally intended to play a role similar to Sean Deluca, presenting another possible suspect in Laurie’s kidnapping.

Kyle hasn’t been deeply involved in the affairs of the hybrids since the beginning of the season, beyond his relationship of sorts with Tess and the situation in “Wipeout!”. This is entirely appropriate, especially since he was never very sympathetic with Max and the others, even after his life was saved. He turned to Buddhism more out of a desire to overcome his anxiety about the hybrids than anything else, and by now, he’s realizing that it doesn’t help. At least part of his negative attitude has to be the impression that his welfare is being placed below the welfare of the hybrids, for whom Valenti had become something of a father figure.

Perhaps predictably, Michael doesn’t give a damn what happens to Valenti, even if he is the one who benefits the most from Valenti’s attention. While it serves the purposes of the plot for Michael to be at the crime scene, so he can find the gandarium crystal, it shows a distinct lack of consideration. As Valenti points out, the situation was already bad enough without the FBI getting involved. (It also seems odd that Michael would be able to visit the scene unnoticed, since someone would inevitably be watching to see if the kidnapper returned.)

Meanwhile, that night, Max intentionally dallies at the Crashdown to keep an eye on Liz. The two of them are clearly getting closer together again, perhaps in the wake of “A Roswell Christmas Carol”, and Liz is making an effort to make Max feel welcome. She’s still worried about Future Max and his predictions of doom, even if the Skins have been defeated and there’s little indication of reinforcements on the way. But her decision to deny Sean the joys of Asteroid Pie, saving the last couple of slices for her and Max, speaks volumes.

Alex definitely displays more confidence than ever, especially when it comes to dealing with Isabel. He might still be interested in her, but his life is no longer revolving around her every whim. If anything, that seems to catch her attention. After all, it was easy enough to keep Alex at a distance when he was openly pursuing her. Having a guy act with less desperation must be new for the gorgeous party girl.

The writers establish that Laurie was paranoid schizophrenic, which actually makes the overall plot arc complicated at best and impossible to reconcile at worst. While it makes it very easy for Valenti and others to explain away her ravings about aliens, some of her claims are obviously true. The gandarium were using Grant to their own ends, so in a sense, “aliens” were kidnapping her. But how exactly did Laurie know about the aliens, if she was being specific?

But far more bizarre is Valenti’s decision to hide Laurie from Agent Duff and have the hybrids come and keep an eye on her. There’s a specific plot convenience involved in that decision, since Laurie must see Michael to mention the fact that he’s supposedly dead. But if Laurie is screaming about the fact that the “aliens” were the ones who kidnapped her, wouldn’t he realize that it would be bad to put her in the same room with aliens? (Never mind what Duff or others would begin to think if they found out that the same teens working with Valenti were the ones Laurie felt a need to run away from!)

Just hours after Max told Liz that someone is out there kidnapping people, one would think that Liz’s discovery of Sean in her house might give her pause. After all, the guy was trespassing and stealing, even though he has a place to stay and somewhere to get food. Instead, she completely ignores the whole issue, to the point where he hits on her and she’s completely unaware of it. Since Sean was introduced largely to feed on the whole kidnapping fear, this scene is completely wasted.

Meanwhile, at the grocery store (apparently explaining why Tess wasn’t called in to help), Kyle gets to overhear locals talking trash about his father. It’s a good scene for three reasons. First, it continues to show Kyle and Tess growing into a pseudo-sibling relationship, with some residual lust lingering in the air. Second, it gives the whole situation a “real world” angle, reminding the audience that there are consequences for Valenti quite apart from the need to protect the hybrids. And finally, it firmly establishes that Amy is very serious regarding her relationship with Valenti.

Laurie’s ravings certainly sound like schizophrenia, and they are similar enough to the claims of aliens kidnapping her to make it all sound like delusional ranting. But as with the earlier scene, it makes it hard to understand why someone would go through all the trouble to abduct her. And why she was relatively sane at the end of the previous episode, despite not being on medication for days!

Things go from bad and confusing to much, much worse when Laurie sees Michael. This is a fairly obvious plot point, in retrospect, but it’s easy to forget that the hybrids had to have gotten their human DNA from somewhere. But it does serve to openly expose Valenti and make any chance of saving his job completely moot. It’s been a long time coming, going back since the end of the first season, but it’s still tragic to watch his entire world fall apart.

The conversation between Alex and Liz is obviously a late addition to the script. It has a ton of elements that play into the arc at the end of the season, especially in terms of Alex’s dialogue. Alex mentions that he sometimes “doesn’t recognize himself”, and constantly talks about the “old” and “new” Alex Whitman. Considering the fact that he was only supposed to be away for a month, it’s hard to imagine that he would really feel like a new young man in that period of time, especially since he slips right back into his old life. Add to that the curious episode continuity mistake in Liz’s dialogue, and it feels like a late addition to the script.

With everything happening, and the hybrids more or less unaware of the depth of the disaster for the Valenti household, Kyle is understandably confrontational. So it doesn’t help when Max asks him to put himself on the line again, all for some evidence that has worse implications for Max and the others than his father, despite what Max might say. By the time Max talks to Liz, however, the message seems to be sinking in. He hears Liz talk about wanting to see the world, and realizes that he and the others are holding their human allies back from the life they deserve to live. Oddly, it was something that Max had a hard time seeing when Liz was trying to explain it at the beginning of the season.

Kyle does exactly what Max asks him to do, but he can’t disguise his disgust over the situation, even when Tess helps him save his own skin. With his father’s formal dismissal, Kyle has every reason to tell Max to take a flying leap. The writers use the situation to place Tess in a difficult position. Still on the outside looking in when it comes to the other hybrids, the Valenti household has become her one source of stability. But it’s impossible for her not to take Kyle’s words against Max, Michael, and Isabel personally. It would have been easy to miss that aspect of the situation, but the writers make an effort to include that dynamic.

Max and Isabel seem sympathetic to Valenti’s plight, but not enough to actually do something about it. This is interesting, because Valenti got himself in his current plight because he was acting on their behalf, not his own. If Isabel hadn’t gone to Valenti and forced him to take action based on her dream-walking, the current crisis would not have come to pass. Yet for all that, Michael’s dismissive words about honoring the fact that Valenti chose their cause give Max and Isabel all the absolution they need.

It’s interesting that Max doesn’t try to include Liz on the analysis of the blue crystal. She might have been able to tell them more about the meaning of the blue cellular structure. For one thing, such a structure is inherently organic in nature, despite appearances. Also, the type of sample taken and analyzed strongly suggests an organic source. Liz would probably know that, and would be able to tell them something meaningful about what was found at the crime scene.

The rest of the episode is a nice transitional phase, moving from Valenti’s downward spiral towards the second half of the arc. Amy helps Valenti resist the urge to isolate himself from the rest of the world, keeping his spirits up and giving him perspective. Sean actually helps Liz deal with the fact that she wants more out of life than Max can currently give her, something that would continue to stand in their way for a few more episodes. But the best scene might be the one between Tess and Kyle, where Kyle awkwardly displays the depth of his affection for Tess, when she thinks that he wants her out of the house. It’s quite unfortunate that the subsequent episodes would stray away from the romance that was building between them.

The most important revelation, however, comes with the final scene, in which Michael and Isabel find a picture of Laurie’s grandfather from 1932, and it looks exactly like Michael. It creates a connection between Michael’s hybrid DNA and the human source that must have somehow been involved, but it also raises several other questions, that can now be added to the list that began after the previous episode. Those questions were:

Did Grant really abduct Laurie?
Why Laurie was abducted and placed in the ground?
What is the connection between Isabel and Laurie?
What did Isabel see when she touched Laurie?
How did Dan know so much about Valenti’s activities?
Was Dan there specifically to look into Max’s connection to Valenti?
Will Valenti lose his job while trying to protect the hybrids? (Answered!)
What will happen to Kyle?
Will Liz become attracted to Sean, and will she toss him aside for Max, as her dream suggests?

Only one of those questions has been answered in this episode: Valenti did, in fact, lose his job for protecting the hybrids. The new questions are:

Is Agent Duff really there just to investigate Laurie’s disappearance?
Does Laurie really have paranoid schizophrenia?
Why was her file at the psychiatric hospital empty?
How are Michael and Laurie’s grandfather connected?
How did Laurie know about aliens being involved in her abduction?
What is the crystal, and why does it seem to be alive?
Why was the crystal placed in the same spot that Laurie was buried?
Why wasn’t the crystal at the crime scene when Laurie was found?

That’s 16 questions raised by the past two episodes, presumably to be answered by the end of the mini-arc comprised of episodes 11 through 14. As the episodes continue, this will be used as a measure of how the need to revise the mini-arc from a series finale to an ongoing story, to accommodate the network waffling, seriously affected the ability of the writers to do their job correctly.

This is another strong episode for Valenti, and many of the character moments are very well done. But the central plot doesn’t really go anywhere new, since the events that take place are either already in motion when the episode begins (Valenti’s fall) or setting up the events to follow (Michael’s discovery about Laurie). The theme of family is covered by Alex’s return, the dynamic between Kyle and Tess, and of course, the final scene, but it’s a very loose theme that masks the fact that the episode is largely transitional.

None of which is very surprising, since the story started in the previous episode, and the next two episodes are technically a two-part installment. So this is the middle installment of a kind of trilogy, and typically, the second part of a trilogy is the weakest link, since most of the pieces are on the board but the endgame is still several moves away. The result is an episode that takes a relatively obvious consequence and drags it out over the course of an hour. In the long run, most of what happens in this episode could have easily been covered at the beginning of the next. Considering the blistering pace of the first half of the season, that’s not something that one would have expected.


Memorable Quotes

TESS: “Let’s get out of here…this polyester number is not working for me…”

SEAN: “Alice.”
ALEX: “Hey, that’s funny…I haven’t heard that since they put you away!”

LIZ: “We’re friends. You know…we’re friends plus…”

TESS: “Kyle?”
KYLE: “What?”
TESS: “You’re definitely my favorite human.”
KYLE: “Yeah, well…you’re my favorite Martian…”


Final Analysis

Overall, this episode is something of a mess. Being at the center of a four-episode arc, the events are largely transitional. As tragic as Valenti’s slow but steady fall might be, most of what happens in this episode is thematically a repeat of what happened in the previous episode. Alex’s return is quite welcome, as is the relationship between Kyle and Tess, but that’s not enough to overcome the weaknesses.

Writing: 1/2
Acting: 2/2
Direction: 1/2
Style: 1/4

Final Rating: 5/10

24 4.10: "Day 4: 4PM - 5PM"

Written by Stephen Kronish and Peter Lenkov
Directed by Brad Turner

In which Jack’s resolution to Behrooz’s captivity leads him to the terrorists’ control center, while CTU discovers a connection between the property and someone in Audrey’s life…


Status Report

With this episode, the season arc jumps into the “complication” phase with both feet. In less than an hour, most of the possible leads are taken out of play and everything comes back to one or two sources of information. Meanwhile, the override device still hasn’t been located, and it’s becoming rather clear that the story is going to remain focused on the nuclear meltdown scenario and its aftermath. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, especially when the story is as dense as the current episodes would imply.

The first few minutes are spent in exposition mode, with the various characters all summing up the current situation and what everyone’s doing about it. This includes Navi, who dutifully explains things to Marwan from the terrorist point of view. Marwan helpfully mentions that the meltdowns are delayed by an hour or so by the fact that CTU has interfered, forcing each reactor to be handled individually. This places a very short window on the resolution of the override matter: by the end of the next episode, Marwan ought to be ready to finish the operation. At the same time, Edgar (still grieving from the previous episode’s drama) promises to try slowing things down even further. (This is typically what is known as “hedging one’s bets”, since the writers aren’t sure how they’re going to plot out future episodes.)

Curtis finally gets to interrogate Marianne, and it’s rather clear that he would love to use a few of the torture techniques that were used on Sarah. For some reason, that doesn’t happen, though some psychological torture is used instead. While Marianne doesn’t have much information herself, being only a pawn in the game, she does know where Powell kept his contact list. The fact that it needs her thumbprint for access seems odd, but she could have had full access to Powell’s plan, without really keeping the details in mind.

Far more quickly than one would expect from Navi’s plan, Jack repels down into the hospital laundry area and a brutal fight ensues. Jack quickly gets the drop on Navi, but then the inevitable happens: Behrooz picks up his father’s gun and drills the bastard through the back. Behrooz certainly had every reason in the world to do it, but from Jack’s perspective it couldn’t have been worse. Granted, Navi may not have been willing to talk, but it was still another possible source of information.

For those still waiting for something horrible to happen to Tony, this is a tense moment. Behrooz looks ready to go out in a blaze of glory, and it’s only the fact that the writers understand that the audience has something invested in him that has kept the plot thread viable. The writers nicely take the audience to the point where they are happy that a young terrorist shot his own father in the back out of revenge. As predicted, some reviewers finally figured that out, and noted how clever it was. Indeed, there are layers to the writing this season that have been overlooked by a lot of the audience!

To make matters worse, Dina promptly holds up her end of the bargain by revealing that she never really had the location of the override. On the face of it, this seems like a bit of a dodge, some excuse to keep up the tension. But Dina then explains that she can give the location where Navi handed the override over to those currently running the show (Marwan). Technically, she (and the writers) were being honest.

Somewhat less honest is the contrived reason for sending Curtis with Marianne to inspect Powell’s computer for the contact list. Driscoll should have been well aware of the fact that sending Curtis was the wrong idea, and considering her previous comments about remaining in command of her own organization, she lets Heller and Audrey run rings around her and make the call. Perhaps to remind herself that she can occasionally make decisive (if entirely wrong) calls, she gives Sarah a few excuses for the torture and lets the young woman go back to work.

Much of the season’s plot culminates, if only for a few minutes, in a single room’s worth of information. The terrorist hideout is an impressive piece of work, if only because it actually looks like a place where people would be able to plan things out in a logical manner. Usually, when such rooms are revealed, articles and photos are tacked up at random, as if a busy and cluttered workspace translates into intent. Far more disturbing is the methodical and progressive display of information for each phase of the operation. As the season marches on, it’s almost certain that the location will become a regular source of new leads for the investigation.

Very quickly, however, the plot turns in a direction that the writers carefully placed within view, but wisely left in the background: Paul Raines. Paul’s involvement makes logical sense. The terrorists used Heller’s son Richard, even without his knowledge, so it logically follows that they would be willing to use another disaffected family member to the cause. Also, every single character introduced thus far has been, in some sense, connected to the overall story. It was only a question of how Paul would end up having an effect; in this case, it could be highly significant to the relationship between Jack and Audrey.

Once again, Tony has the chance to get out of the situation cleanly, and Jack convinces him to make the more difficult choice and return to CTU with Dina and Behrooz. In all fairness, Tony has every right to wonder if getting back involved with CTU is the right move. Certainly Jack is being honest with him, but there’s no chance in hell that Driscoll is honestly open to the thought. She’s only going along with it because Heller would overrule her if Jack pressed on the matter, and she’s more than happy to let Tony hang himself again, even if only by appearances.

As it is, Heller is ready to rip her head off when he discovers that Audrey elected to distract Paul while Jack and the CTU teams are en route. Driscoll tries to tell Heller that Jack tried to stop her, as if Jack’s actions would reflect well on her, but Heller’s not stupid. It’s clear that Heller has come to the valid conclusion that Driscoll has little or no control over the situation, and that the real decisions are in Jack’s hands. And since Jack technically works for Heller, well, Driscoll is stuck following Jack’s lead.

Driscoll lets Tony handle the interrogation, going along with what Jack and Heller would prefer, but she also decides to use Sarah as her personal slave. Driscoll is looking for any excuse to claim that Jack and/or Tony are acting outside of protocol, so she can get back some measure of control (even though she clearly doesn’t deserve it). Sarah sees right through it, and uses Driscoll’s desperation to get her record repaired and a promotion on top of it. Driscoll, an idiot to the end, agrees. Apparently she’s not thinking about what happens if she doesn’t end up on top, and Sarah finds it more expedient to turn on her and report the underhanded office politics to Division.

As one would expect, at Powell’s office, Marianne claims not to know anything about Paul’s connection to the terrorist’s base of operations. In fact, Marianne claims not to know anything of any value. While this is in keeping with her character, it does begin to feel like a writing convenience, especially when the same people who killed Powell walk in, ventilate Marianne and the rest of the agents, and take Curtis into custody. Like previous seasons, the story is turning away from international terrorists towards something far more domestic. As predictable as this is, it does play to the paranoia surrounding mega-corporations and the secret agenda of those backing a more vague definition of the War on Terror.

This is mixed well with the tension of Audrey’s meeting with Paul, which quickly descends into something very disturbing. It’s clear that Audrey has no real intention of ever giving Paul a second chance, now that his possible connection to terrorism is becoming more and more probable, but it’s not at all good for her to see Jack confront Paul with violence. Despite the fact that Audrey understands the position that Jack is in, it’s going to be impossible for her to ignore the personal implications of the confrontation.

The general direction of Driscoll’s machinations and Jack’s confrontation with Paul suggests a dirty political scenario. Jack, in the time he has left, might have to take desperate action against Paul to get the necessary intelligence. Audrey is right there to see it and question Jack’s motivations. All it would take is one small misstep for Driscoll to claim that Jack stepped over the line, outside protocol, for her to get the upper hand. After all, if Audrey questions Jack’s motives, would Heller be so quick to defend him? Probably not, and if Tony happens to slip as well, Jack could find himself without allies in short order.

This is where the limited time frame comes into play. Marwan ought to be ready to trigger the other reactors within the next episode. That leaves more than half the season left, and the “complication” phase of the season arc typically extends until around episode 16. At the current pace, the fallout of the reactor meltdown crisis and the subsequent scramble to find the real culprits could easily coincide with politicized backstabbing at CTU. (This would also be the perfect time for Michelle to arrive on the scene; imagine her having to take sides between Driscoll and Jack/Tony…plenty of opportunity for tense drama!)

As often mentioned, all of these potential plot threads, even if they proceed exactly as predicted, are far more exciting and fascinating than the material at this point in the third season. The extra time may not have given the writers a chance to get ahead of the production schedule, but it did give them the kind of mental reboot necessary to think more capably on the fly. Even this episode, with more plot conveniences than many of the episodes that came before it, hangs together very well and delivers on its own promises. (If only FOX would stop pretending that every episode pushes the violence boundary!)

In the end, however, the writers have those plot conveniences to look back on and consider while pressing forward at breakneck speed. It’s not uncommon, when under a tight deadline, to get the “big moments” and essentials in all the right places, especially when there’s some experience to draw upon. The problem is that little errors creep in, here and there, and over time, it gets harder and harder to avoid the shortcuts that lead to stupid mistakes. The conveniences were easy enough to explain away this time; hopefully, the writers don’t let it get any worse than that in the future.


Final Analysis

Overall, this episode introduced even more complications into the story arc, even as the investigation seems to be gaining momentum with every minute that ticks by. The CTU intrigue was somewhat more grounded in this episode, promising future strife for Jack, but the writers avoided any unnecessarily overwrought subplots. There were some plot contrivances, but they were well within the context of the episode and easily dismissed. The writers should take care, however, to keep such shortcuts to a minimum.

Writing: 2/2
Acting: 2/2
Direction: 2/2
Style: 2/4

Final Rating: 8/10

Season Average (as of 4.10): 7.7

Enterprise 4.15: "Affliction"

Written by Mike Sussman and Manny Coto
Directed by Michael Grossman

In which Phlox is kidnapped by Klingons who want him to cure a plague that seems to be altering their appearance before killing them, while Reed is forced to help cover up the truth…


Captain’s Log

Following the cancellation news, it was easy to let that overshadow the episodes themselves. It didn’t help that the previous episode was an odd choice for the final part of a trilogy that seemed to be about Federation. But with this episode, Manny Coto brings the continuity of the fourth season to another level, not only in terms of the ongoing plot threads of recent episodes, but the franchise as a whole.

Not so long ago, Brannon Braga complained about fans who were more interested in “continuity porn” than true storytelling. Braga did things his way for three seasons, and beyond some token references to elements of the original series, most of the plot threads were related to the Temporal Cold War and stand-alone episodes that did little to hold viewer interest. Now Coto is delivering exactly what the fans wanted, and this episode is the perfect example of Braga’s “continuity porn” imaginable: why the appearance of the Klingons is so different during the original series.

On the face of it, this is probably one of the most “Trek geek” questions imaginable. Chances are, this was never going to appeal to a wider audience. For the diehard Trek fan, however, this is about as good as it gets. Beyond the Klingon question, there’s also the return of Section 31, one of the other continuity items high on the fan list. In both cases, the treatment is well within established franchise continuity. In terms of “Enterprise” continuity, there are more than a few references to episodes from earlier in the season. “Home”, in particular, continues to play its appointed part, as plot and character elements from that episode pay off.

In terms of the Klingon question, the answer is elegantly simple. During the “Augment Arc”, the Klingons became aware of Human genetic engineering, and decided that a smarter, stronger enemy was a bad thing. Inevitably, that lead to Klingon experiments involving the use of Augment DNA to enhance their own people. The result was the immediate conversion from the typical Klingon appearance to something more Human. Unfortunately for the Klingons, the result was also deadly, being imperfect, and after mixing with a type of flu, airborne.

This goes a long way towards explaining how the change took place and why it spread through much of the Klingon Empire. As this episode quickly explains, the Klingons were more than happy to kill thousands, even millions, to keep something so deadly from eliminating the species. Phlox was kidnapped to find a cure, but with no time to do so, the more likely solution is a stop-gap measure: finding a way to make the Augment process successful, leaving it to a future generation to find the cure and allow the Klingons to revert to their proper appearance.

Beyond the “Augment Arc”, there’s also an interesting connection to the “Vulcan Arc”. When Phlox is kidnapped, a rather attractive Hoshi is the only witness. She can’t remember the details, so Archer asks T’Pol to mind-meld with Hoshi. Considering the fact that T’Pol is only now beginning to understand the true legacy of Surak and his teachings, including getting over the recent stigma against melding, it’s not a simple task. Archer, of all people, happens to have some small knowledge of the technique necessary, thanks to his experience with Surak’s katra.

It’s not the most logical of explanations, but it does provide for a strong continuity reference and a nice scene between T’Pol and Hoshi. It also serves to present the conflict for Reed. Archer and Enterprise were never supposed to have a lead, because someone else has a vested interest in the situation in the Empire. It certainly seems as though Section 31, the covert ops division included in the Starfleet charter (originally introduced during the “DS9” series), had something to do with Phlox’s kidnapping. They certainly want to impede any efforts by Enterprise to rescue Phlox, which also serves to cover their own involvement.

This, of course, presents more than a small problem for Reed. It appears that Reed was once working with Section 31, something that seems hard to reconcile at first, until one remembers that he’s quite paranoid about the threats to Earth and his specialties with weapons technology. Section 31’s mandate, to protect Earth (and later, the Federation) against all possible threats would seem to fit Reed’s original characterization quite well. But it also means that Reed is stuck between his duty to Archer and his duty to his former masters. It’s the most attention given to Reed in quite some time, and it’s a welcome development.

All of which brings up an interesting question about Section 31’s involvement in the Klingon situation. Section 31 facilitated Phlox’s kidnapping, which means that they know about the situation in the Empire. The obvious conclusion is that Section 31 is working with the Klingons to cover up the genetic experiments, possibly to ensure that the connection to Human Augments is kept hidden. Of course, there could be other interpretations of their actions, and since this is the first part of a two-part story, there could be additional information still lacking.

Beyond the Klingon question and the connections to Section 31, there’s also Trip’s transfer to the Columbia, commanded by Archer’s most recent love interest, Captain Hernandez. Trip was originally shown as one hell of an engineer, but as time passed, his impatience and stubborn streak were emphasized in favor of his technical skill. This episode finally shows him in his element again, despite the circumstances of his departure from Enterprise, and that’s very good to see. He’s tough, but between his work on Columbia and the huge hole in engineering support left on Enterprise, Trip’s worth is more than adequately reinforced.

As if the rest of the plot elements weren’t enough, there’s also a subplot related to T’Pol’s mind-meld. T’Pol, Trip, and Hoshi all find themselves having an odd reaction in the wake of the meld. For some odd reason, opening up a connection to Hoshi’s mind has placed all three of them in a kind of undesired melded state. From time to time, they begin experiencing a connection, and in this case, Hoshi begins to pick up on the romantic overtones of the relationship between Trip and T’Pol. Hopefully, that will not lead to an easy future resumption of that subplot, since it was not nearly as successful as Berman and Braga thought it would be in the third season.

Unlike most episodes of “Enterprise”, the plot is not the only draw. Most of the characters get a chance to shine in moments that fit their previous character development (such as it was). Archer, as usual, gets to show some of the grit that he acquired in the Expanse, but also some of the weariness of a commander who has gotten too used to having friends in key positions. Once upon a time, everyone on the crew was dealing with the learning curve; now, Archer has little patience for unnecessary delays. But the real meat of the story is his fury towards Reed, which is kept under relative control, but communicated without doubt.

T’Pol’s struggles with emotional control since “Kir’Shara” have been relegated to background noise, thankfully, since it works better as an ongoing character trait than a full-blown subplot. So far, only one episode since that time has shown T’Pol as overly emotive, and that was “United”. One could easily dismiss each new display of emotion now, and given her lack of experience with melding (and Archer’s undoubtedly incomplete instruction), it makes sense that there would be a consequence. It could turn into a horrible subplot, but for now, it actually opens some interesting doors.

Trip’s time on Columbia, as already mentioned, has revived some aspects of his character that had long since become drowned in neuromessage and a stubborn insistence that the universe bend to his moral will. Granted, many engineers are control freaks (speaking as one), but they are also still engineers, and that means focusing on the technology. Shaking things up by putting Trip on another ship (thereby also widening the scope of the series for a little while) helps the character tremendously. The moments on Columbia more than make up for the awkward conversation at the top of the hour.

It’s been quite a while since Phlox was placed in a serious moral dilemma, so this is definitely a good episode for him. It makes sense for the Klingons and/or Section 31 to turn to Phlox as a non-human with knowledge of viral propagation and Augment DNA. For that matter, in the “Augment Arc”, Phlox revealed that Denobulans have a great deal of experience with genetic engineering, not to mention Phlox’s knowledge of mutagenic plagues from “Extinction” (which probably should have been mentioned). His moral outrage and constant arguments with The Klingon doctor were nearly perfect.

Of the characters most often ignored by the writers, Reed gets the most attention. But Hoshi also gets her moment in the sun. Not only does she get to show off how hot she is in civilian clothing, but her experience with T’Pol brings up a character element largely ignored since “Exile”. That episode hinted that Hoshi’s facility with language could be related to a latent psychic ability, akin to the “esper” concept in the original series (something quickly dropped but still relevant). This would explain why the melding wasn’t ended smoothly. If this was the intent of the writers, then it would give at least some sense of closure.

The only character to be left out of the character development is, of course, Mayweather. The writers have never known what to do with him. The episodes that focused on his character in the first and second season were some of the worst of the series, thanks to Montgomery’s limited acting range. One might have hoped that the Coto regime would be able to remedy this long-standing oversight, but that hasn’t been the case. He gets more screen time, sure, but he’s still just a “catch all” character that gets inserted whenever the other characters are otherwise occupied.

John Schuck and James Avery give strong performances as the Klingon supporting characters of Antaak and General K’Vagh. Overall, like the Reed subplot, the Klingon scenes provide several strong continuity references to “DS9” and the overall basis of Klingon culture. There are even some subtle references to the Klingon culture as depicted in “The Final Reflection”, one of the earliest Trek novels (and one that, for some time, defined the Klingon culture before it was altered during “Next Generation”). References to the H’urq invasion remind the audience that this is all about giving the Klingons the kind of continuity repair granted to the Vulcans earlier in the season; franchise continuity is melded with “Enterprise” continuity where possible, and the rest is more or less ignored (or it has been thus far).

The direction was very strong for this episode, especially given the amount of character development and the layered plot structure. Few episodes of “Enterprise” have been so densely packed or quickly paced, but the direction was smooth, as if the entire production understood how strong the episode would be. Even the score was inspired, which is a rare thing for this series. Usually, the score is generic Trek, barely matching the tone of any given scene; this episode, like “The Forge”, had an evocative score that seemed closer to the percussive style used on “Battlestar: Galactica” than previous episodes of the series.

With all of the continuity references to the franchise history and episodes earlier in the series, this episode is a fine example of what a lot of fans were expecting out of the first season. Indeed, this is a strong continuation of plot threads developed in the fourth season overall, proving that a strong writing staff with a sense of Trek lore can actually tell strong stories within continuity. It’s possible that the second half of this tale will far short of the first, but if the writers stick to their current game plan, this ought to be the most satisfying arc of the season.


Final Analysis

Overall, this episode is one of the strongest of the season, and perhaps one of the best of the series. Several plot and character elements come together in this episode, and the solution to the Klingon appearance issue is perfectly logical. Once again, the Coto regime manages to take more than a few fan-driven concerns and forge them into an exciting Trek adventure. This is “Enterprise” on top of its game.

Writing: 2/2
Acting: 2/2
Direction: 2/2
Style: 4/4

Final Rating: 10/10

Season Average (as of 4.15): 7.6

Alias 4.7: "Detente"

Written by Monica Breen and Alison Schapker
Directed by Craig Zisk

In which Sydney’s disdain for Sloane and his current authority causes trouble when she and her sister Nadia violate orders during a mission to prevent the spread of a deadly weapon…


Status Report

One of the major sticking points this season has been the difficult suspension of disbelief regarding Sloane. There’s such a terrible history associated with the character, even during his presumably first round of “making amends”, that it seems ludicrous to think that anyone, never mind Sydney and the rest of the team, would willingly work for him.

This episode was promoted by the network as something of a “sister act’, which is really only a small part of the episode’s charm. Sure, Sydney and Nadia make like the Paris/Nicole type, all in the name of bonding with another supposed ditz to get top secret information from a Russian crime boss, but that’s not the overall concept of the episode. As much as the relationship between the two sisters is highlighted, it’s used as a means to a much more interesting end: exploring Sydney’s deep conflict with her current employment situation.

It’s been a long time coming, and it doesn’t help that the network tossed the episodes around like a salad, dumping a couple of episodes ahead of this one in the hopes (one would think) of getting new viewers hooked on the whole Sydney/Vaughn relationship. All well and good, but it doesn’t take a brain surgeon to realize that Sydney’s issues with Sloane should have come up almost immediately following the season premiere. And indeed, this episode was supposed to follow “The Awful Truth”, directly connecting Sydney’s doubts in the premiere and quickly following up on the strained relationship between Nadia and Sloane.

Even taking the bizarre episode order into account, this is exactly what a lot of fans were hoping for, especially the ones who didn’t buy the whole revamped status quo. Nearly every episode has Sydney snapping at her boss with biting sarcasm, and he just seems to take it. The simple assumption is that he has a long-term agenda, still unfulfilled, and ignoring Sydney is the easiest thing for the plan. This episode, however, delves into the complexity of the relationship.

The goal in this episode (stand-alone again, at least plot-wise) is preventing the spread of a weapons technology called “Black Thorine”, essentially a super-explosive. Russian crime bosses have it or want it, as usual, since this series is obsessed with post-capitalism Russian crime syndicates. The CIA wants the technology safely contained and out of enemy hands (and likely into theirs), and so who do they call? Sloane and his team, of course!

There are complications on the mission, but they are nothing compared to the complications that arise between the characters. This is where the previous episode failed and this one succeeds: moving the characters forward and exploring their motivations. The first third of any season of an arc-driven series should be spent laying the foundation for plot and character threads, and since the plot aspect has been hobbled by the network thus far, the character drama needs to step up to the plate. “Nocturne” failed to add anything new, rehashing the past for new viewers; this episode takes a more balanced approach.

As one would expect, Sloane wants a relationship with his daughter Nadia, and that includes little things like stopping by at the house for after-work drinks and conversation. It’s still not clear why Nadia would forgive Sloane for what happened at the end of the third season, but she seems more than willing to let bygones be bygones for the moment. Nadia seems to be taking the practical approach to the whole situation: she hasn’t seen anything firsthand, and she needs to figure out where she fits in this new world on her own terms.

Sydney comes back from a mission to find him sitting there at the counter, all smiles, and she instantly tells him to take a hike. This is a natural enough reaction, but it also is very telling: she doesn’t take Nadia’s feelings on the matter into consideration at all. Sydney’s so wrapped up in her own issues over Sloane (however justified) that she can’t comprehend how someone wouldn’t instantly hate the man based on her version of events.

That’s not a writing error, especially since Nadia seems to regard Sydney with something approaching suspicion or wariness several times during the episode. It almost seems as if she might have heard some things about Syndey from Sloane during their Rambaldi trek, between the seasons, and maybe she’s trying to assess whose version of the truth fits her own experience. She wants the relationship with her sister, but as well as they work together, the lines are slowly being drawn. If Nadia can set aside the past and move forward, but Sydney cannot, it could play into the larger dynamic.

That dynamic includes the truth about Irina and Sloane’s possible agenda. There’s something going on between Jack and Sloane, which could simply be a matter of Jack keeping a very close eye on his old ally/enemy. Whatever the case, Nadia will eventually learn the truth about Jack, and thanks to the information that Sydney has, it’s unlikely that the sisters would come down on the same side. The question is: would Sloane use that situation to gain Nadia’s allegiance, thus setting the stage for a future conflict between two fathers and two daughters, with Irina and her legacy being at the center of it all?

Consider that even Vaughn and Weiss, old friends and allies to the end, are slowly but surely choosing sides. Vaughn would obviously back Sydney, but if Weiss gets close to Nadia, that could break the friendship if it comes down to it. For that matter, Dixon would ultimately back Sydney against Sloane, something made very clear in the previous episode. One would also expect Marshall to stick with Sydney, but depending on the circumstances, that could be a false assumption.

For that to have any dramatic context, especially in light of the third season, the core relationships within the conflict must be established and the issues of contention put into place. An eventual breakdown in the relationship between the two sisters (who are fated to kill/destroy each other anyway) wouldn’t mean much if they weren’t first allies and potential friends. Nadia is the closest thing to a close family member that Sydney has left in her world, since her relationship with her father is more than a little strained. Similarly, any future conflict between Jack and Sloane would work better if it were established that they were working towards the same goal.

JJ Abrams indicated that the fans should be patient with this season, since two goals are in play: gaining the trust of new audience coming out of “Lost”, and then giving Sydney’s world more life, so that conflicts begin to have meaning again. When Will and Francie were around, there was always the threat that something would sever that relationship (and in fact, that’s what happened). In the third season, Sydney became so isolated that it became less about her precarious relationships to those around her and more about plot considerations that had no gravitas without the relationship element.

So the scenario, suggested heavily by this episode, is that the writers are taking the first third or half of the season to slowly but surely set up several key relationships that, if Sloane goes rogue again (or even begins to appear to go rogue), will be sorely tested. Sydney makes it very clear in this episode that she has no intention of ever forgiving Sloane for what he’s done, and by staying, she’s making it clear that she has no intention of letting those feelings get in the way of keeping him under very close watch. She’s gotten used to playing these games, after all, and like Dixon, she wants to be there to take Sloane down when the day of betrayal comes ‘round again.

As already mentioned, this episode would have been better in its original context, coming after “The Awful Truth” or even “Ice”. Dixon’s conversation with Sydney doesn’t quite mesh with his confrontation with Sloane in the previous episode; it feels like this conversation should have come first. Equally, Sydney and Nadia really establish a working relationship in this episode, based on a sense of mutual trust and affection. Having it happen this far into the season isn’t necessarily a major problem, but it muddies the character development threads a bit.

Back to the scenario, this could explain why the producers weren’t so worried about mixing the episodes around. Provided that the episodes all contain some element to establish key character relationships, and that those elements aren’t directly dependent on a specific progression of episodes, then it’s merely an annoyance. Ultimately, of course, all of these pieces should culminate in something with a more serialized flavor, or the one reasonable explanation for the structure of the season would disappear. All of this needs to come together in the end if the writers want to have any chance of satisfying the audience, new or old.

What’s interesting is the contrast between “Lost” and “Alias”. “Lost” has an incredibly tight continuity, highly serialized, but episodes are effectively stand-alone in the sense that character development is covered through flashbacks that give context, episode to episode, to character decisions as the story moves forward. So it’s possible to watch “Lost” week to week and enjoy it. This is the essence of a balanced series structure: each episode should have a certain value in and of itself, but each episode should also add to the big picture, so that when taken as a whole, the individual stories add up to a much larger long-term story.

Earlier seasons of “Alias” were like that, with the hook of cutting off the final resolution to each episode’s plot thread and leaving it for the teaser of the next episode. If it had been a question of simply taking that resolution and shifting it back to the end of each episode, that’s one thing. But it’s still not clear whether or not the individual pieces are adding up to a greater whole. The previous episode was evidence for deep concern; this episode restores some hope. The network needs to work with the writers/producers to allow the series to find that balance again.

It can be very hard to remain patient with the pacing and structure of the season thus far. The stripped down continuity is inconsistent at best, or so it seems when the episodes are so disconnected. While only one episode has truly been devoid of character development (“Nocturne”), the odd scheduling (both on the calendar and episode order) has made it hard to recall that the other six episodes (counting the premiere as two) have had plenty of strong character moments, because the episodes themselves have varied in quality.

This episode has plenty of things that make it work: Sydney and Sloane facing each other down, sexy action with Sydney and Nadia in the field, and references to Sloane’s past criminal activity. Sloane’s dressing-down of Sydney and Nadia was also unexpected. But it also had some predictable elements as well: how the situation at the hotel was resolved, the complication with the exchange, and Sydney’s decision to remain with APO. The plot itself held very few surprises. The end result is an episode that is fairly average, and until some of these earlier episodes are placed into a definitive larger context, this will continue to be the case.


Final Analysis

Overall, this episode finally deals with Sydney’s aversion to working with Sloane and her motivations for remaining with APO. Sloane’s criminal past rears its ugly head in an unexpected manner, which is always good, but the plot is fairly standard and holds few surprises. There are some hints to the development of key relationships and future conflicts, but they remain only possibilities, which leaves the overall pertinence of this episode in question.

Writing: 1/2
Acting: 2/2
Direction: 2/2
Style: 2/4

Final Rating: 7/10

Season Average (as of 4.7): 7.0

Lost 1.16: "Outlaws"

Written by Drew Goddard
Directed by Jack Bender

In which an encounter with a wild boar takes Sawyer on a hunt, and in the process, he recalls the circumstances that brought him to Sydney and some of the worst moments of his life…


Status Report

Over the past several episodes, the plot threads have slowed down a bit, giving way to character development concerns and subtly shifting alliances. This episode is no different in that respect. What makes this episode exceptional is the level of character development involved. This episode has all the hallmarks of a Drew Goddard episode: character exploration with some serious bite, for lack of a better word.

This is partially accomplished by simply focusing on fewer characters, and taking those characters and pulling them into the two main character threads under consideration. This is another episode about dealing with emotional baggage: Sawyer and his past, Charlie and his present. In a nice bit of parallel storytelling, both men are essentially dealing with the knowledge that they have killed in the name of revenge. Ironically, Charlie is probably in the better position; he can more easily justify his actions from a psychological point of view.

A lot of fans have seen Sawyer as a wounded soul in need of serious repair, and they are not wrong. Those wounds are exposed in this episode, and it is not a pretty sight. The teaser is more than enough information to present Sawyer in a different light. It’s one thing for him to say that his life was ruined by a man named Sawyer, and that trying to find him and get revenge has turned him into the kind of man he has long despised. It’s quite another to know that Sawyer, as a child named James, had to listen to his father kill his mother and then himself, with the suicide happened on James’ own childhood bed. It’s a haunting moment, and one that immediately gives the modern Sawyer a more reasonable context.

After all, it’s one thing to say that a terrible childhood brought about a bitter and self-centered criminal (it’s almost pop culture at this point); it’s another to see, very clearly, that Sawyer never had a prayer of living a normal life, giving how little control he’s had over it. The rest of the characters all have their emotional and psychological issues to work out, but with the possible exception of Kate, Sawyer has them all beat, without a doubt. It’s entirely appropriate that Sawyer be the de facto leader of those remaining on the beach, resisting personal redemption, since he’s also the one with the most to overcome.

Looking at Sawyer’s past, his quest to avenge his parents and the theft of his childhood dominates everything in his world. His criminal activities have been depicted as a combination of instant gratification and ongoing research: one facilitates the other, since finding the real Sawyer means delving into his world. Both driving forces were probably burned into James’ psyche the night of the murder/suicide; there are elements of childhood fantasy at the root of both. Sawyer lives for the moment, all while living for the goal of finding and killing the real Sawyer, all part of some endless revenge fantasy. Literally decades of his life have passed without deeper meaning.

More than ever, it’s clear why he uses the name Sawyer. The real Sawyer has become the totality of his existence, and not just in terms of following in the grifter’s footsteps, consorting with the same shady criminals and following the same lifestyle. James has come to define himself through the search for Sawyer, to the point that he doesn’t really know himself anymore. Unlike the rest of the survivors, who are all more or less aware of who they are and where they lost their way, Sawyer never got to become anyone.

This makes his behavior on the island thus far very easy to understand. Perhaps for the first time, he has the chance to control some measure of his reality. As such, he takes every step to gain possession of anything he might need, all in the name of avoiding dependence. It’s the first, awkward step towards self-discovery. At the same time, he consciously remains close to the others, and when he lets his guard down, he starts to make connections. There’s a part of him that wants to give up “Sawyer” and become his own person. But after years and years of denying his own personal identity, it’s going to take more than a month for him to let go.

It certainly doesn’t help that he’s continued to be a victim ever since that fateful night. He trusts his sometime associate Hibbs when it seems to give him what he wants, at least so far as to go to Sydney and plan murder. The real James seems to come out when he walks away, unable to bring his fantasy into reality. It’s not just that James has a crisis of conscience (thought that is the case); it’s also a sign that as of right now, there’s still something of the innocent little boy left inside. In the days before Flight 815, James wasn’t completely gone.

That’s when his story takes a truly inspired turn. Sawyer might not have murdered Frank, and a terrible mistake might have been avoided, if only he hadn’t run into Jack’s father. Finally delivering on the promise that the lives of the survivors are interconnected in the past as well as the present, pulling in a more abstract concept of a “higher power’ to the series’ tapestry, Jack’s father tells Sawyer something that Jack would love to hear, but something that is now personally devastating to Sawyer in the present: that Jack’s father, ruined by his own son, still sees Jack as a true man. It’s the kind of thing Sawyer never got to hear from a father figure. Even worse, Jack’s father gives Sawyer the motivation to go and kill Frank, only to discover that the man simply owed Hibbs money.

All of which informs the “present”, in which Sawyer comes to see a rather large wild boar as a symbolic enemy, Frank returned to get some measure of revenge, stealing Sawyer’s current comforts in repayment for a stolen life. The message is that a person can give meaning to random or even purposeful events that have everything to do with their psychologically skewed point of view. Forgiving the boar, letting it live, is symbolically the first step towards letting go of Sawyer and becoming James. (The subsequent conversation with Jack, of course, demonstrates that there’s still quite a lot of Sawyer left in there.)

Sawyer’s lesson could also be a hint about the mystery of the island itself. For all the signs and portents suggesting a higher power executing some master plan on the island, there have also been plenty of signs that much of the supposed phenomenon is being interpreted through perspectives that are suspect. If there’s something on the island that has some kind of psychotropic effect, altering perception and interpretation, then it could easily explain Sawyer’s experience in this episode. At the same time, the whispering seems to happen to those resisting the transformative experience of the island, so it’s still more than possible that the larger “higher power” context remains intact.

Charlie also goes through the journey of working out the psychological effects of killing a man, but in this case, he gets something that Sawyer hasn’t been given: emotional support. Part of that is the fact that Charlie didn’t put the rest of the survivors at a distance from the very beginning, so others cared about his well-being. None of them suspect or really even care about Sawyer’s past history, and since he won’t say anything about it, they can’t help him. So Charlie begins to move on, while Sawyer is still left to work it out alone.

Jack has very little to do with this episode; in fact, more is said about Jack through Sawyer’s memory than through his own actions. The writers continue to place Jack in the role of the reluctant leader, in the sense of the man who finds himself appointed sheriff in some Western. In a interesting and unexpected move, the writers take away some of the growing sense of impending conflict by having everyone give back the guns that Jack gave them in the previous episode. It might not change things in the long run; Kate knows where the guns are, and she could ultimately betray Jack down the road (for real or under manipulation herself). But it keeps Jack firmly in control, with the ability to call out the posse when necessary. (Yep, lots of Western archetypes recently!)

Kate is still playing both sides against the middle, working her own game. Now that more of Sawyer’s motivations have been laid on the table, Kate and Hurley are the only characters without some basic degree of psychological background. When it comes to Kate, however, that kind of information could be very important to the fate of all the survivors. Kate wants to do the right thing and help people, but that’s rapidly looking like an avoidance mechanism in and of itself. She’s interested in Sawyer, but even he recognizes that she’s essentially chosen to stick with Jack. But the secrets are starting to come out: she was once married, and coupled with the hints that she killed someone she loved, a vague picture is definitely forming.

It’s very interesting how Sayid’s past as a member of the Iraqi Republican Guard is presented without much prejudice. It’s a part of him that the writers occasionally use when it makes sense, but otherwise, he is portrayed as a normal human being with a sense of true decency. Sayid knows exactly what to say to Charlie to get him past the trauma, and then he moves on. He also shows genuine concern for Sawyer and the implications of someone else hearing the voices. If he knew that Sawyer’s experience included hearing the voices of someone specific to Sawyer’s past, he might be even more concerned.

Of course, Sayid couldn’t have helped Charlie if it hadn’t been for Hurley, who continues to act as the general counselor to the survivors. He seems to have a vested interest in making sure everyone’s psychologically balanced, or as much as possible, once again suggesting a basic understanding of what the island is offering. It’s hard to imagine that Hurley has anything in his past requiring redemption, especially since Hurley was aligned with the island and moving forward from the very beginning. That could only prove to make any such revelations about his past all the more shocking.

Claire has only a small part in this episode, but it’s very important in terms of Charlie’s overall development. It would have been easy for Claire to reject Charlie, having seen him murder someone right in front of her. But Claire seems to understand, on a gut level, that Charlie was looking out for her, and by now, she must know that he died, possibly because he tried to protect her. By episode’s end, they are back on track as the island’s most obvious couple, and a lot of fans couldn’t be happier. (Any excuse to get Emilie to smile on screen!)

Beyond Michael’s continuing effort to build a raft, the minor characters like Jin, Sun, Walt, Boone, and Shannon remain firmly in the background. It’s a testimony to the strength of the episode that their absence in the episode is barely noticeable. Granted, some of those characters will dominate the next episode, so it all balances out over time. Inserting them into this episode without true need would have been a mistake, and thankfully, the writers understood that fact.

Locke, firmly in the role of the island shaman, appears just enough to give Sawyer a bit of semi-obvious context. Some might find his tale about his sister a bit over the top, hammering home a metaphor that was already more or less obvious from the context. But that story serves a twofold purpose. It reinforces the idea that events can be interpreted as something more than they are, particularly in a spiritual sense, and it continues to establish Locke as the spiritual leader to Jack’s more practical leadership. And of course, it’s all rather disconcerting by the time the story is over, making one wonder how much Locke went through in his life, and how similar he might be to Sawyer. In essence: is Locke the kind of person that Sawyer could become, if he succumbs to whatever is causing Sawyer to hear the voices?

This episode is unabashedly all about character development, and in this regard, Drew Goddard hits another one out of the park. He takes a game like “I Never”, a potentially goofy plot device, and turns it into a substantially chilling mechanism for quick and powerful character revelation. This is also an episode that has a definitively slow and deliberate pacing; there are more uncomfortable and telling silences in this episode than one would ever expect, and every single one of them is appropriate. Despite a small role, Robert Patrick gives Hibbs a distinct personality, and it’s clear that he could factor into future revelations about Sawyer’s past, perhaps intersecting with a few other character histories in the process.

One gets the very strong sense that the writers know exactly what’s happening on the island and how every piece of the puzzle fits together, and as a result, they have enough confidence to leave questions unanswered, secure in the assumption that the audience can see that confidence as something justified. So plot elements like the hatch discovered by Locke and Boone have more value, at the moment, as triggers for decisions by characters, revealing who they are and what they want. It’s becoming rather clear that the writers consider it more important to establish motivations and dynamics in the first season, so that future plot and character threads have a strong foundation.

The trick is making sure that the episodes that focus on character development are strong enough to ensure that the confidence in the writers is sustained. Some of the past several episodes haven’t quite achieved that goal, making some wonder whether or not there really is a plan and tapestry in place. Episodes like this reaffirm that the writers know what they’re doing, and that the audience has every reason to sit back and enjoy the ride.


Final Analysis

Overall, this episode is one of the best of the season, providing a deep and unyielding context to Sawyer’s psychological baggage. Nearly every moment of the episode is devoted to revealing some layer of one of the characters, and there are enough hints regarding long-term plot threads to give the character development a strong context. Some might wonder what the past few episodes have been lacking; this episode demonstrates the point perfectly.

Writing: 2/2
Acting: 2/2
Direction: 2/2
Style: 4/4

Final Rating: 10/10

Season Average (as of 1.15): 7.8

24 4.9: "Day 4: 3PM - 4PM"

Written by Howard Gordon and Evan Katz
Directed by Brad Turner

In which Jack and Tony are placed on the trail of Dina and Behrooz, who are also being hunted down by Navi, while time runs out as one of the nuclear reactors goes into meltdown…


Status Report

The previous episode left six nuclear reactors on the brink of nuclear meltdown, just as the one apparent lead on the technology needed to stop it was drilled by a sniper. Tough luck for Jack, but good luck for Tony, who actually managed to survive another hour! As it turns out, Powell’s demise was not the elimination of all remaining options; in a nice twist, the pieces of the puzzle begin to move into place, thanks to a specific connection between Powell and one of the terrorists.

In an interesting opening scene that was probably a little too familiar for most corporate employees, Driscoll and Curtis decide to work out a way to cover their mutual assets regarding Marianne’s contract at CTU. Curtis has plenty to lose, as a scapegoat if nothing else, but Driscoll understood the circumstances and should have made better decisions. A third of the way into the season, the writers are not making Driscoll any more sympathetic. For every good decision she makes, she makes about five terrible ones.

Thankfully, the nuclear meltdown scenario continues to build momentum as Heller explains to the president that one of the reactors, on San Gabriel Island, is going to meltdown within the hour. This is an interesting departure from the usual tactic of introducing a threat and having it derailed without major consequence. Perhaps the writers took their lessons from the latter half of the third season, when an inspired (if gruesome) plot twist unleashed death on hundreds of people. It’s something the real world has been forced to accept: sometimes, the terrorists overcome our defenses. And sometimes, like in this season, the terrorists are aided when the wrong people are in charge.

Thanks to Marianne’s capture and Powell’s cell phone, the pieces start to come together for the good guys. The scope of the operation is still not clear, but the enormity of the effect is more than enough to paint a picture. Since Powell appears to have been a central figure in the conspiracy, he also had a contact among the terrorists. Making that contact Dina Araz is a brilliant plot element, since it’s the perfect way to get Jack and Dina together and generate some strong drama.

Of course, Navi is trying to stop Dina and/or Behrooz from getting in the way of the nuclear operation (which, in turn, could only be part of the plan). The writers never hid the fact that this conflict was going to become a major element of the plot arc, but they could have easily bungled it (similar to the mistakes made with Nina in the third season). Instead, the confrontation is built logically throughout the episode, which makes it seem a lot less contrived.

Case in point: Navi goes to the home of a family friend, under the impression that Dina might be hiding out there. The woman, Farrah, is incredibly gorgeous, and she’s also carrying on an affair with an American man. Navi, consistent with his previous characterization, is disgusted by Farrah’s infidelity on many levels, but mostly because she has sullied herself by consorting with the enemy. Some might see that as stereotyping, but in fact, it’s called characterization. This scene defines the depth of Navi’s fanaticism, something quite apart from the attitude of most Muslim-Americans.

The writers also don’t forget that Tony is only reluctantly working with Jack on this case. Tony’s reluctance is a minor detail, but it’s an important one. It would have been very easy for the writers to simply have Tony tag along, without regard to how he got involved or how the agents currently in the field might react to his presence. Tony’s attitude also gives Carlos Bernard something to work with, which is always a good thing.

With Dina threatening to slip into shock, Behrooz is forced to get pain medication. As it happens, Dina’s brother Naseem works at a nearby hospital, which is rather convenient, but works for the story. Naseem also wasn’t part of the terrorist plot, which continues to delineate the difference between the fanatical terrorists and the Muslim community at large. (It won’t appease those complaining, of course, but it is a calculated attempt to make the terrorists a very select case.)

The San Gabriel reactor goes into meltdown a bit early, which only adds to the tension. It’s something of a minor shock to consider that the evacuation, despite being underway, has no chance of succeeding. This is where the writers make the one major mistake in what is otherwise a strong episode: introducing Edgar’s mother, who just happens to be in the meltdown zone and can’t get herself out of it.

It’s obvious why the writers chose to do this. Like Michelle and the hotel plot thread in the third season, it helps to have a character present at a situation to provide a first-hand point of view. The difference is that the audience was already invested in the character of Michelle before she got caught in that situation. The audience has no reason to care about Edgar’s mother, and so the dramatic element becomes an annoyance. The writers also try to develop another layer of storytelling within the episode through this plot device, but as will shortly be explained, it didn’t work as well as it could have.

This does, however, give Audrey something to do, which is a good thing. In the third season, many characters were introduced that ultimately had nothing to do, sometimes falling off the radar completely. Since Audrey remains in the spotlight, and as something other than a victim, it gives the writers a chance to demonstrate why Jack finds her so alluring. (For that matter, it also suggests that Paul, her ex-husband, will factor into the plot at some point.)

As previously mentioned, the writers take the time for the field agents to give Jack a hard time about Tony’s presence. They have a very good point. From their perspective, it doesn’t matter if Tony was once a CTU director with field experience. He’s also an apparent traitor who was stripped of his clearances and ratings as a result. More than that, it took Driscoll giving Jack a temporary reassignment for him to get his current level of authority. At the very least, Jack should have contacted Driscoll or Division to get authority for Tony’s inclusion on the current mission.

That said, Tony did exactly the right thing once the squad took custody of Dina Araz. Castle is way over the top, regardless of the circumstances, forgetting the context of the situation and the fact that a soft touch is needed to get Dina to work with them. Even before getting the information about Behrooz, everyone should have recognized Dina’s suicide attempt as a sign that she has vital information.

The tension really mounts once Naseem innocently contacts Navi about Behrooz. Navi does exactly the right thing to trick Naseem into keeping Behrooz within sight, and it instantly sets the stage for the confrontation in the final act. From that point forward, the audience knows exactly what is likely to happen, and it pays off all the time spent developing a strange sympathy for Dina and Behrooz in the first place.

After a scene where Edgar wastes Audrey’s (and everyone else’s) time regarding his mother, who is obviously going to die, Jack and Tony get more information on Dina, thanks to a cell phone recording that just happened to be in someone’s database. (Why this wouldn’t have been flagged by Homeland Security is hard to reconcile.) In an amazing scene, Jack strikes a rapport with Dina, using concern for loved ones as the connective thread.

What’s great about this scene is how dedicated Dina remains to her cause. It would have been easy to have Dina repudiate her allegiance, declaring that she was wrong and that America is really, really perfect now. Thankfully the writers stick to their previous convictions by keeping Dina true to her cause, yet more dedicated to the life of her son. It’s complicated characterization, and it makes Dina one of the most compelling characters of the season. (Also very good: Jack doesn’t try to argue against her cause, but rather, appeals to her love for her son. Jack shows very good judgment there.)

Once again taking a page from the consistent characterization book, when Jack calls Keeler for the immunity letter for Behrooz, Keeler acts decisively, but also makes sure his hands aren’t tied. Looking back at the third season, this is exactly the kind of thing Keeler would be expected to do. More than that, it also underscores the differences between Palmer and Keeler, already clearly defined in Keeler’s quick but questionable decision-making in the previous episode. Keeler’s certainly not perfect, and he doesn’t have the conscience that Palmer had, but he’s also not being written two-dimensionally.

In a scene that feels like it will never end, Edgar’s mother resolutely decides to kill herself rather than go through the agony of radiation poisoning. Edgar decides, with no other options, to leave CTU and try to rescue her on his own. This is where the writers don’t quite manage to pull the symmetry of the episode together. The idea is clearly to show that while Dina is willing to save millions against her conscience to save her son’s life, Edgar is willing to sacrifice million against his conscience to save his mother’s life. The writers have been nicely blurring the lines all season long, but this time, it doesn’t quite gel.

Given everything that’s happened to him in less than a day, it’s not surprising that Behrooz would question his mother’s honesty about her situation and his immunity. He also shows dedication to her, which under the circumstances, is somewhat bittersweet. Of course, he agrees, necessary to get Jack and Tony to bring Dina and the agents to the hospital for the showdown with Navi. And moments later, Naseem does exactly what Navi had hoped he would do, keeping Behrooz for getting to safety.

The writers took little time to set Navi up as a ruthless villain, and it all pays off in this episode. Where Dina is softened by her human devotion to her son, Navi is defined by his complete lack of it. Dina may be willing to die for her cause, but Navi lives and breathes for it, to every possible extreme. Behrooz may pretend not to fear his father anymore, but the look in his eye betrays the truth. From Navi’s perspective, everything is unraveling, and his only option is to escalate the situation long enough to keep Jack and his agents from getting their hands on the override device.

The final moments are outstanding. Seeing Jack get creamed by Navi’s car is a stunning moment, even if Jack should never be able to walk away from that kind of punishment. It also gives Jack an excuse not to take a shot at Navi’s exposed head, because his aim wouldn’t be so certain under the circumstances, and Dina’s cooperation is vital to preventing another meltdown. With the rest of the reactors scheduled to meltdown within two hours, Navi trapped in the basement with Behrooz, and the fallout from San Gabriel predicted to blow right over the evacuation routes, Dina gives Jack some chilling perspective: if Behrooz dies, she’ll happily watch millions die.

At the beginning of the season, with the writers quickly falling way behind in the schedule, it seemed like a recipe for disaster. Subplots like Edgar’s mother could have easily become a symptom of their utter failure. Amazingly, the rest of the episode is almost perfectly constructed, building on strong characterization to generate tension and conflict in logical ways. Beyond the CTU personnel, the characters are quite complex, evolving beyond the stereotypes that could have easily been used. The terrorists actually have distinct personalities at this point, which gives hope that this will continue to be the case as the season progresses.

The San Gabriel meltdown is the major event that was anticipated at this juncture in the season arc, and as the middle third of the season evolves, it will be interesting to see how the terrorist plot advances following the nuclear incidents. Of course, this could be the only incident that they had in mind, and the real point of these next 8 episodes will be exposing the true scope of the conspiracy. Just as the Salazars weren’t the true villains of the third season, there must be someone using the Middle Eastern terrorists to achieve some larger goal.

This is not a perfect episode, of course, and there are inevitably details that could have been handled better or more realistically. But the fact is that many of the best elements of this season are paying off in a major way. While there are still several plot elements that could kill the momentum, especially related to the CTU personnel, right now the series is living up to its reputation.


Final Analysis

Overall, this episode continued to deliver the goods, pulling together plot threads into a nice confrontational package in the final act. The Edgar subplot was unnecessary and poorly conceived, even though the writers tied to make it relevant from a philosophical point of view. It’s no longer a question of whether or not the series can regain its momentum and entertainment value, but rather, how long the writers will be able to sustain it with no prep time.

Writing: 2/2
Acting: 2/2
Direction: 2/2
Style: 2/4

Final Rating: 8/10

Season Average (as of 4.9): 7.7

Enterprise 4.14: "The Aenar"

Written by Andre Bormanis
Directed by Mike Vejar

In which Archer and Shran contact an Andorian sub-species called the Aenar, while the work to counter the Romulan threat results in the loss of a vital crew member…


Captain’s Log

The escalation of extremes on both sides of the cancellation gulf had already begun in earnest as this episode hit the air, largely overshadowing the fact that this is another consistent hour from the current regime. In a sense, it’s a larger commentary on why the series was cancelled to begin with: those who despise the series watched only to bemoan every possible flaw, those who loved the series watched for more rational pursuits, and those who have left the series for dead didn’t bother tuning in this time, either.

It doesn’t help that the producers and the cast have openly confirmed that the studio itself has decided to give the franchise a rest. For the rabid attack dogs among the naysayers, this has declared open season on those who have enjoyed the show, turning what had already been a flurry of unnecessary “I told you so” tirades into self-congratulatory ego stroking. On the other extreme, there are those who refuse to see the writing on the wall, spending money on ads to “Save Enterprise”, despite the fact that the studio has no intention of lifting a finger, regardless of fan response.

The “Save Enterprise” movement (if it can be called such a thing) is actually somewhat destructive in its effect, which might go against the usual logic of such crusades. However, consider that “Enterprise” is not a lone series concept, trying to valiantly remain on the schedule. It is, rather, the latest televised incarnation of a multi-media empire, and the easiest way for the studio to determine whether or not the fandom in general is interested enough in Trek to continue shelling out money.

Frankly, from the studio’s perspective, the Trek Product peaked in recent popularity around the mid 1990’s, with the end of “Next Generation”. When that series came on the air, it was the only thing like it, and in that era, first-run syndication was far more lucrative than it is today. In the past ten years, the studio has done everything possible to maintain that level of success. Inevitably, it hasn’t worked. While “DS9” was creatively fertile, ostensibly because of the competition with the underdog yet more highly acclaimed “Babylon 5”, “Voyager” and then “Enterprise” only vaguely offered something akin to a new approach.

Many people have noted that “Next Generation” fulfilled the dreams of millions of Trek fans from the original series onward. The title itself invoked how long it had taken to get Trek back to the airwaves outside of repeat syndication. (The animated series, oft overlooked and rarely re-run, never seemed to factor into the majority of the audience, who still managed to catch the original series on weekends.) Years of anticipation and pre-internet rumor fueled that desire for more.

Flashforward from 1985 to 2005: it’s 20 years later, and now there’s 18 years worth of new Trek material. For those who lived and died by the original series, where’s the anticipation? The franchise went from legendary to saturating pop culture to establishing an overwhelming repeat syndication presence. It’s quite possible for even the most rabid Trek fan to admit that there are episodes they haven’t seen once, let alone the dozens of times most original series fans watched those episodes.

So while there are die-hards that continue to watch each and every episode, others have moved on, or they’re content to stop with whatever their favorite incarnation was and let the rest appeal to someone else. The effect of five different series has been the fragmentation of the fandom. It’s not that there are less fans out there, but for most of them, the desire and anticipation has been fulfilled.

For those who continue to enjoy fresh perspectives in the Trek playground, opinions are no less divided. There’s a joy to an episode like this one, delving into Andoria and the pre-Federation intrigues. But it’s apparent that only a certain segment of the fandom is really interested in this period of the timeline, and the rest might very well find it more interesting to delve into some of the novels. Even the studio has to have noticed that the sales for the novels have been steady throughout the slow but steady decline of televised Trek, and right now, many fans consider the novels to be more creative and exciting than “Enterprise”.

So the studio looks at the ratings, the declining interest in franchise merchandising beyond the novels, and then they look at the box office receipts for “Nemesis”. They realize that the bulk of the Trek audience is looking backward now, buying DVDs and novels based on earlier incarnations, not looking forward to new product. The decision to “rest the franchise” is hardly a surprise under the circumstances.

There is a certain irony in that many fans would love to see a series of novels covering the Romulan Wars or the period surrounding Federation. They trust the current crop of writers for prose Trek to do the concept justice. But “Enterprise” novels are far and few between, and one must conclude that the demand is not very high. This says a lot about the opinion of the characters related to “Enterprise”; there’s nothing so exciting about them that fans are demanding more stories about them.

This is a critical distinction. It’s not necessarily that the fans wouldn’t like to see the era before the original series or leading into Federation. It’s more correct to say that many fans don’t want to see that period as it was depicted on “Enterprise” or through the point of view of the series’ characters. There may be a large number of Trek fans out there interested in Andoria or the early stages of the Romulan Wars, with no interest in seeing Archer and his crew at the center of it.

The lack of character development, especially beyond the three main characters, has been a major criticism of the series. This episode doesn’t do much to alleviate those concerns, but anyone still watching the series has already concluded that it’s far too late to worry about that now. The central draw of the series, right now, is the exploration of the pre-Federation state of play. Specifically, this episode explores Andoria as it was in that era, and continues to set the stage for a future retaliation against Earth by some pissed-off Romulans.

As with every episode that includes Shran, the entertainment level is high. The writers took the chance of showing Shran in a situation where his bluster and arrogance would fall to the wayside, overwhelmed by the circumstances of the threat to his world and the loss of a loved one. This episode may be the final appearance of Shran in the Trek universe, and if so, then the writers did the character justice by giving him more depth.

One could argue that this episode is primarily about Shran and his interaction with the Aenar, especially Jhamel. Archer is there to facilitate Jhamel’s decision to go against the ways of her people and stop her brother Gareb from succeeding in the Romulan mission to destroy Enterprise. Had Shran gone to the Aenar himself, it’s unlikely that his interpretation of events would have been accepted, since the Aenar must have long since rejected Andorian philosophy, or they wouldn’t have isolated themselves from Andorian society in the first place.

Archer is means by which the Aenar learn about the situation; Jhamel then seems to bond somewhat with Shran, perhaps understanding that they share a common grief, the loss of a loved one. It’s possible that Jhamel might have gone with Archer anyway, but it’s Shran and his connection to her that drives her forward. It’s unlikely that Archer could have (or would have) convinced Jhamel to make the potential sacrifice of her own life, and if he had, it would have come across as Archer using Jhamel against her will, thus equating with the Romulan abuse of Gareb.

On the Enterprise side of the equation, the important story elements belong to Trip and T’Pol. T’Pol recovers somewhat from her emotional outbursts in the previous episode. Her control only slips when her emotions overwhelm her control mechanism, which is still being rebuilt in the wake of “Kir’Shara”. Thankfully, instead of revisiting the Trip/T’Pol romance, the writers choose to make the end of that romance a springboard for actual character arcs.

Before Shran and Jhamel are involved in the struggle to disrupt the Romulan control over Gareb, which is the culmination of the plot arc as a whole, there’s the development and testing of the “telepresence” device on Enterprise. Unlike Shran, who reacts to Jhamel’s struggle with the machine by gaining immense respect for her abilities and her dedication to her brother, Trip cannot divorce his feelings for T’Pol and his concern for her welfare from the demands of duty. This has been building over time in the background, and T’Pol short-lived marriage was essentially a way to keep the topic off the table for several episodes. Once that marriage was dissolved, Trip had to deal with the fact that T’Pol was now working out her personal issues through dedication to Surak’s teachings, not by clinging to him.

Trip’s decision is perfectly in keeping with his character. Since the writers aren’t interested in changing him through experience, beyond a certain level of fatalism in the third season, they make his impulsive nature work for the story. He can’t seem to keep his head clear, and so rather than take the difficult road and face the challenge head-on, he chooses to leave the situation and pretend that it will solve everything. In the end, Archer tries to discuss this, but Trip has already made up his mind. It’s quite unexpected, and for that reason alone, it is a good move for the writers.

There’s a third key element to this episode, and that’s the depiction of the Romulan intrigue at the heart of the “telepresence” project. One of the weaknesses of this arc was the performance of Brian Thompson. To play a Romulan requires a subtle line delivery that, unfortunately, Thompson is unable to accomplish. Thompson is usually cast in the more visually formidable parts, so his role in this arc was against type, and in this case it didn’t work to the benefit of the story. It’s hard to accept that Valdore, as depicted, managed to rise to any position of power, given his inability to speak eloquently.

It’s not enough to undermine the quality of the story completely, of course, since there’s so much else going for it. And even Thompson’s failure to deliver the lines with appropriate introspection doesn’t take away from the contextual depth. The writers depict a Romulan Empire with obvious goals for regional expansion, and anyone caught questioning that mandate is forced out of power. Considering some of the current actions taken against moderate conservatives in American government under the current administration, Valdore’s tale rings true.

The resolution of the current threat is perhaps a bit too final. The prototype “telepresence” drones should have been (and might still be) the precursors to the vessels used by the Romulans in the war against Earth. One would assume from the Romulan intrigues surrounding this particular project that the gambit was considered unsuccessful. Of course, that could explain why it took another year or so for the Romulans to attack Earth with drone ships with nuclear devices.

Another interpretation is that these episodes actually constitute the beginning of the Romulan Wars. At the very least, Archer and his crew are aware of the fact that the drones are Romulan in origin, and because they wind up intervening in the Romulan-driven destabilization efforts between the Vulcans, Andorians, and Tellarites, Enterprise and all of Humanity becomes the most logical target. Any future action against Archer or Enterprise, or any pre-Federation Starfleet vessel, would inevitably be categorized as a war effort against Earth. Perhaps, a century removed, the combined Romulan operations were described, in shorthand, as a war against Earth, making all of this consistent with the history given in “Balance of Terror”.

One exceptional aspect of the episode is the CGI, especially the long-range shots of Andoria and the Aenar dwellings. It almost didn’t matter that the descriptions of Andor(ia) given in the novels set after “DS9” were completely contradictory, because they were simply gorgeous shots. (One note: the authors of those novels made it clear that climate control had been exercised, thus partially explaining the major contradictions away. The costuming for the Aenar was also quite beautiful, especially the fetching outfit for Jhamel. And of course, the space combat was up to the usual standard.

If there was a downside, then it was the way the Aenar’s attempt to confuse Shran, Archer, and Jhamel was resolved. It seemed rather simple, and one wonders why the Aenar didn’t think to disguise the fact that they were running around in circles, if they were able to disguise the exit so easily. It was probably simplified for time, but regardless, it didn’t come together as the writers probably intended. The overall tone of the episode also lacked energy, which might have been the result of several production factors or directorial style; for some reason, Mike Vejar is unable to give his “Enterprise” episodes the kind of tension present in his “Babylon 5” episodes.

At the end of the previous episode, it seemed like the plot threads were already where they needed to be to establish the rationale for the future Federation and the Romulan Wars to come prior to it. The diversion towards the Aenar doesn’t seem initially necessary, until one considers that it sets the stage for Trip’s decision to leave Enterprise and the elimination of one tactic for the Romulans and their war plans. One might wonder what had become of the alliance in the previous episode, since it didn’t factor into the story at all, but that would have almost been too much.

For now, this episode might be most notable for the exploration of the Andorians and Trip’s unusual decision to leave Enterprise. It remains to be seen how this will unfold in future episodes, but regardless, this is the kind of shuffling that might have been useful earlier in the series. Of course, that only counts if the writers use this to expand the scope of the story, rather than simply subtract a character.


Final Analysis

Overall, this episode did a capable job of closing out the “Andorian Arc”, even if it initially felt like an unnecessary extension of the plot. The exploration of Andoria was one of the strengths of the episode, and the ending was completely unexpected. Even so, the episode didn’t have quite as much energy as it should have, and the Romulan intrigues were ill-served by a bad casting choice.

Writing: 2/2
Acting: 2/2
Direction: 2/2
Style: 1/4

Final Rating: 7/10

Season Average (as of 4.14): 7.4

Firefly 1.10: "War Stories"

Written by Cheryl Cain
Directed by James Contner

In which Wash lets his jealousy lead him to accompany Mal on a drop, only to get caught in the snare when Niska finally catches up with Mal and decides to get some payback…


Status Report

Like the previous episode, the plot and character elements introduced earlier in the season begin to intersect. While the crew deals with the consequences of the previous episode (including River’s treatment and their increased monetary resources), a new and exciting problem arises when Mal finds a buyer for the medical supplies they stole from the hospital on Ariel. Wash finally loses his patience with Mal’s hold over Zoe, and he decides to do something about it. His timing, however, leaves much to be desired.

The episode begins with a conversation that reveals more about Book and his mysterious past. Book asks Simon if he’s ever read the works of Shan Yu, a dictator who wrote several books regarding torture and war. While one might expect Simon to have read such works as a part of his highbrow education, it’s less likely for a man with religious leanings, to be sure. It’s interesting that Book would wonder if those who experimented on River were adherents to Shan Yu’s philosophy, since it suggests that Book might have some idea of who in the Alliance authorized and ran the project. It’s not at all surprising that Niska is a fan, but it is surprising to see him return now, since he seemed like a one-off villain created only for the rushed “second pilot” episode, “The Train Job”.

Meanwhile, Inara is seeking something resembling discretion from Mal and the crew for her next appointment, while River and Kaylee run around them like kids before bedtime. This is an interesting image, given the fact that Mal and Inara have been orbiting one another for some time now, and they look positively parental dealing with the two young women. This scene also has some nice continuity with “Shindig” and “Ariel”, which proves the point that all of these plot threads were meant to intersect at this point of the season.

Playful grabbing of apples leads to a rather morbid discussion of trench battle tactics during the civil war involving fruit and mini-grenades. Wash seems to think that he has to sugarcoat Zoe’s tale, but Kaylee and River get the point rather easily. The story about the apples is connected metaphorically to the concepts of the “true self” from Shan Yu: one has to be very careful when cutting into the truth of a thing, or it can have deadly consequences.

In the midst of conversation, Wash discovers that one of his ideas about maximizing profits, shared only with Zoe, made it to Mal, who then dismissed it so Zoe wouldn’t have to do it herself. Wash is not pleased, and he doesn’t hide it for long. He eventually loses his temper, and accuses Zoe of obeying and honoring Mal more than her own husband. Part of it is his incomplete understanding of her role as Mal’s confidante and woman-at-arms, but part of it is quite legitimate, from his point of view.

As one would expect, River has good and bad hours, never mind days, but now she’s more aware of it. She slips from a sense of normalcy to sensory overload as the treatments wear off or stop working altogether. This is important because it pertains to the end of the episode, and a possible plot point that the writers never had time to explore (and might be covered in the feature film).

Inara’s appointment arrives, and the entire crew is stunned to discover that her client is a woman this time around. This should have come as no surprise to the audience, but for some reason, there was much discussion about it during first run. Some thought it was Joss pandering to a certain demographic, ala allegation about the Willow/Tara relationship on “Buffy”, while others felt that it was a ratings stunt. If anything, it was a way to get a good laugh out of Jayne’s reaction and Kaylee’s obvious curiosity.

In a moment of personal desperation, Wash sabotages the shuttle controls so that Zoe can’t pilot and leave with Mal to the drop point. Wash insists on going himself, so he can see first hand what Mal and Zoe do when he’s not around. Mal is not amused, but he has no inclination to argue, so he decides to let Wash sub in, against his better judgment. Wash seems all too pleased with himself, which of course, is doomed to be short-lived. This is definitely one of those “careful what you wish for” moments.

The scene between Inara and the Councilor is straightforward enough, though it does raise a few questions, especially for the male viewers in the audience. Many of them would be asking if this is a common activity between female friends, when behind closed doors, but others would be wondering if it’s true that women simply cannot feel relaxed “in the company of men”. It’s a line with plenty of implication, because it sounds so negative, yet Inara feels a rather positive tension when around Mal.

To Mal’s credit, he makes it very clear to Wash that the situation is a one-time deal, and only because the job is simple and shouldn’t be a problem. Apparently, Mal is unaware that Niska controls the station on the other side of the planet, or his belief in Murphy’s Law would have kicked in. Wash, for his part, doesn’t want to hear it. He listens to Mal and doesn’t hear the logic, but rather, someone trying to get one over on him. Not surprisingly, things go wrong almost immediately.

Back on the ship, despite the distraction of the Councilor’s exit (in which Jayne nearly lets Book kill himself with free weights), Zoe’s instincts tell her that too much time has elapsed, and the fun begins. Book helps Zoe and Jayne scout the drop point, and once again, the Shepherd displays quite the knowledge of sniper weaponry. Taken along with the previous information revealed about Book, it certainly supports the theory that he was once involved in Alliance military intelligence.

On the space station, Wash panics like crazy while Mal tries to feel his way around. It takes him a little while to realize that this is exactly the situation that Zoe would be caught up in, had she gone in his place, and Mal doesn’t seem to understand why that would upset him. Wash accuses Mal of controlling Zoe’s every thought, so Mal counters with the best possible example of Zoe’s free will: the fact that she married Wash in the first place. This adds an interesting angle to Mal’s loyalty to his own crew, given that he wouldn’t hesitate to defend and protect Wash, despite not wanting him to marry Zoe and complicate the crew dynamic.

While Zoe gathers all the money that the crew had accumulated from the medicine sales prior to this particular mess, Niska has his minion torture the hell out of Mal and Wash. This is one of the most brutal scenes in the episode, and not just because of the physical pain involved. Mal explains his apparent point of view regarding shipboard romance, and on the surface of it, he’s right on the money.

But Wash sees right through it, and recognizes that Mal has serious intimacy issues. Indeed, Mal has lost his faith in humanity, and part of that is lack of trust in anything beyond a pseudo-military loyalty. Even so, people like Kaylee and Inara have gotten under his skin, which makes his life somewhat complicated. Even faced with Wash’s insight, Mal finds a way to keep the conversation going, entirely due to his concern for Wash’s welfare. He needs to keep Wash awake and aware, and so he has to keep Wash talking.

Niska is more than happy to let Zoe pay him off, but he’s not willing to let his reputation for violence slacken in the process. He forces Zoe to make a choice, but Zoe beats him to the punch. As soon as she realizes what Niska has in mind, she immediately chooses Wash over Mal. For his own part, Mal understands perfectly, and makes it clear to Wash that this is exactly the way it should be. Niska, not one to lose the last word, gives Zoe a piece of Mal’s ear as a parting gift. As always, reputation is Niska’s primary concern!

Wash has seen Mal’s sacrifice and loyalty in the past, but never under that kind of situation. It’s suddenly rather clear why Zoe is willing to follow Mal’s lead, and it has nothing to do with matters of the heart. Wash is inspired to do for Mal what Mal was willing to do for him: lay his life on the line. There’s definitely a certain black comedy to Wash’s sudden warrior persona, but it’s kept to a subtle undertone. It’s almost hard to notice once the rest of the crew joins in the assault.

Back on the station, Mal dies, but of course, that’s too simple for Niska, so he’s quickly revived. Niska reminds Mal that a lot of people know both of them by reputation, and Niska isn’t wiling to let Mal’s fame rise at his expense. Niska wants to use his payback against Mal as a means of increasing his own already formidable legend. Ironically, one must then assume that Mal’s reputation ultimately benefits from this ordeal, because when all is said and done, Mal comes out on top.

The assault is one of the more impressive action sequences of the series to date, especially on the small scale. It doesn’t hurt that Zoe, Jayne, and Wash make a pretty good first wave. Of course, if Zoe knew anything about Book’s background, or even paid attention to his obvious skill, she might have taken him instead of Jayne. Whatever the case, as the assault moves forward and Mal gets his pound of flesh, it all comes down to Kaylee and her defense of the docking port.

In keeping with her character, Kaylee is completely unable to deal with something like armed combat, especially under the frantic circumstances. This provides a perfect opportunity for River to show “the real her”. After a single glance, River takes three quick shots with her eyes closed, and all three targets are dead where they were standing. Since this came after River began having one of her bad moments, it begs the question: is this what River is capable of when she’s in the condition desired by the Alliance?

Perhaps that was their goal, but she demonstrated none of those skills while still suffering the effects of the experiment. Another possibility emerges, and it is not pretty: what if Simon’s various attempts at a treatment are actually completing the job that the Alliance started, turning River into a success rather than another failure? The Alliance appears to have been creating the perfect assassin, complete with psychic ability, and if so, then River’s right…no power in the ‘verse could stop someone who can predict every move, counter every defense.

In the end, the ordeal has dome much to reveal new information about the motivations and abilities of those on Serenity. Wash comes to understand Zoe’s loyalty to Mal, and even finds some grit of his own, surprising everyone but Zoe in the process. Book demonstrates his proficiency with weapons and military forensics. River might have revealed what the Alliance was trying to create during their experiments.

All in all, Shan Yu would be proud.


Memorable Quotes

MAL: “Ah, the pitter-patter of tiny feet in huge combat boots…shut up!”

ZOE: “Is there any way I’m gonna get out of this with honor and dignity?”
WASH: “You’re pretty much down to ritual suicide, lamby-toes…”

ZOE: “Right…because what this marriage needs is one more shouting match.”
WASH: “No, what this marriage needs is one less husband!”

JAYNE: “I’ll be in my bunk!”

WASH: “Thought I might take this run instead, me and the captain.”
MAL: “The Captain who’s standing right here, telling you that’s not gonna happen?”

MAL: “OK, I’m lost, I’m angry, and I’m armed, so if you two have something that you need to work out…”

WASH: “I’m the one she swore to love, honor, and obey!”
MAL: “Listen…she swore to obey?”
WASH: “Well, no, not…”

SIMON: “Well, it’s a clean cut. With the right equipment, I should be able to reattach it. That’s assuming there’s a head…”

NISKA: “Do you know the writings of Shan Yu?”
MAL: “We’re starting a book club?”

ZOE: “Preacher, don’t the Bible have some pretty specific things to say about killing?”
BOOK: “Quite specific. It is, however, somewhat fuzzier on the subject of kneecaps…”

MAL: “Looks like business ain’t running so much as crawlin’ away…you want to meet the real me now?”

RIVER: “No power in the ‘verse can stop me.”

ZOE: “Jayne, this is something the captain has to do for himself.”
MAL: “No! No, it’s not!”
ZOE: “Oh!”

MAL: “I know it’s a difficult mission, but you and I…have to get it on.”
ZOE: “I understand. We have no choice. Take me, sir. Take me hard.”
JAYNE: “Now something about that is just downright unsettling…”


Final Analysis

Overall, this episode is another excellent example of character development, once again spinning out of the plot and character elements established in the first several episodes of the season. The brutal and honest nature of the story is never obscured, and the characters reveal important depths in the process. This is a highlight for the character of Wash, who finally gets some real development, becoming much more than the comic relief.

Writing: 2/2
Acting: 2/2
Direction: 2/2
Style: 4/4

Original Rating: 9/10
Final DVD Rating: 10/10

Alias 4.6: "Nocturne"

Written by Jeff Pinkner
Directed by Lawrence Trilling

In which Sydney is “infected” by a drug that causes her to experience increasingly paranoid waking nightmares, forcing Jack and Vaughn to frantically search for a cure…


Status Report

After the previous episode, a lot of people felt that the writers had ripped off an epsiode of “X-Files” called “Arcadia”. Similar accusations will probably be leveled against this episode, claiming that the writers lifted their central idea from an “X-Files” episode called “Sleepless”. In this case, at least, the concept of developing soldiers that don’t need to sleep has a real world origin. Such experiments were indeed conducted during the Cold War (and probably are still being conducted), and for the most part, the results were about as successful as Nocturne.

Though it has been kept relatively quiet by the producers and the network, the first half of the season is essentially being aired out of production order. This is the first time that this has been remotely possible, because the first three seasons were more serialized; airing the episodes out of order would have resulted in chaos. (When such things did happen, the episodes were adjusted with revised or new scenes to smooth over the effect on plot and character threads.)

One can only guess that the network (and possibly JJ himself) has decided to test whether or not the more episodic treatment of the series will work, even under artificially challenging conditions. It’s one thing to have about seven or eight episodes that are largely stand-alone at the front of the schedule; it’s quite another to take those episodes, mix them around, and then expect the audience not to notice that the character interactions don’t quite follow a logical arc.

If anyone is a victim of this kind of shuffled programming, it’s the writing staff. They are ultimately going to be blamed for every perceived stop-and-start between Sydney and Vaughn, for every time that trust in Sloane comes and goes, and the fact that none of the plot elements that were seeded through the season thus far have gone anywhere. It also doesn’t help that the series’ most oft-mentioned spy game rival, “24”, opened with a barrage of episodes that has helped them get a third of the season under its belt, gaining momentum as a result.

With almost a week more to work with, “Alias” has gained audience coming after “Lost”, but there’s no sense of where the season is going. It’s February sweeps, and there’s nothing special about the episodes thus far. The writers are clearly being ordered to wrap up each episode without a cliffhanger, and even if they were intentionally slipping plot elements into each episode for future exploration, there’s little sense of a developing arc. It’s all about the characters right now, and while that would be enough if the character threads were intact (something “Lost” does extremely well), mixing up the episodes eliminates that possibility.

As a result, the previous episode, really the ninth to be produced, came before this episode, which was much earlier in the production schedule (the actual production order is hard to pin down). In the previous episode, Sydney and Vaughn seem to come to terms with the fact that they’ve been dancing around their relationship issues; in the opening minutes of this episode, they are back to dancing around. Whatever sense of progression the writers built into each episode has been destroyed by what looks like network interference, a mandate to make the series into something it was never meant to be.

It didn’t have to be this way. The season could have been cohesive, even with a more episodic mentality. JJ brought in the writers from “Angel” specifically because they had demonstrated an ability to take the early part of that series’ fifth season and render it more episodic while also establishing character and plot arcs in the process. And they might have accomplished the same thing for this series, but the scrambled episode order has ruined it.

All of this actually relates to the ongoing comments that the series is beginning to look like it’s ripping off “X-Files” week to week. Well, in a sense, it is, because this kind of disconnected episodic format was something that initially gave “X-Files” a wider audience but ultimately left the audience feeling like nothing was going anywhere. Granted, that series survived for nine seasons, but by the end, the fans were deeply divided over the direction that the series had taken, yearning for better days when there was actual character development and the hope that the larger mythology was going somewhere.

While many people (especially network executives) love the episodic format, since it means skipping an episode doesn’t force a person to play “catch up”, there’s an obvious drawback. Not even taking into account the fact that the series gained a following for its relatively tight continuity, there’s the “safety net” that a more serialized format provides. If an episode is largely stand-alone, the central plot might not be very exciting. Having long-term plot and character threads present in the story helps to offset the weaknesses of a particular story. The previous episode, for instance, gained something from the Jack/Sloane intrigue, partially offsetting the disappointment with the main plot.

Episodes like “The Awful Truth” and “Ice” dealt with important character elements, leaving the audience with the knowledge that something more was sure to come of it. There’s little doubt that Nadia will eventually learn the truth about Irina’s death, and Vaughn’s confession about Lauren was a great payoff to that third season debacle, allowing him to move forward. This episode has only the scathing interplay between Sloane and Dixon, and in the end, there’s nothing new there. Is it really that big of a surprise that Dixon is simply waiting for Sloane to show his true colors? Isn’t that something that the writers have already expressed through Sydney?

So the episode must rest on the laurels of its sole plot: Sydney’s “infection” by Nocturne and the frantic search for a cure before the madness permanently sets in. While Sydney’s paranoid visions were fun, at least most of the time, it was not very strong overall. In fact, by the end of the episode, there were some disturbing levels to the fight between Sydney and Vaughn. And while it was good to see the writers address the central absurdity of sending Sydney into the field in her condition, it seemed a bit forced, as if it happened that way just to give Dixon an excuse to give Sloane a piece of his mind.

The episode felt somewhat in disarray, as if rushed to the point of needing someone to really give it a once-over to make sure the logic fell together. Having Sydney show visible signs of exposure to the Nocturne drug was a mistake, since it made it seem like the rest of the characters (especially Jack and Vaughn) were completely non-observant. How is it that Nadia, who barely knows her sister, can tell that something is wrong when the others don’t?

It might have been better if Sydney and the others had been given a somewhat deeper cover identity, forced to locate “the Count” less directly, so that Sydney’s symptoms could evolve during the mission. Imagine what the writers could have done with the story if Sydney began forgetting who was friend or enemy while also trying to maintain cover. As it was, the trip to another European goth club, though notable for giving Sydney another excuse for a tight corset, felt more like the third season than a return to the depth of earlier missions.

Of course, the writers were more interested in Sydney’s paranoid interactions with Jack and Vaughn, which makes sense from a certain point of view. If there’s one thing that the earlier episodes established very well, it’s the fact that Sydney has serious trust issues when it comes to her father. That goes back to the very first episode of the series, and that relationship has only marginally gotten better. Most of the good hallucination scenes come when Sydney imagines Jack betraying her, and while the audience can tell which moments are real and which are not, it’s hard not to understand why Sydney would find the waking nightmares so easy to believe.

This is such a ripe area for exploration, especially after “The Awful Truth”, that it might have been better to focus entirely on that relationship. However, the writers can’t resist having Sydney and Vaughn beat the living hell out of each other, and Sydney even tries to shoot him in the head. This is typically bad for relationships on the mend. The writers don’t play it for laughs, thankfully, which is just about the only way it could have been more disturbing.

The central plot is not the only weakness of the episode. There’re also some characterization issues. Throughout the episode, Marshall came across as completely out of character, down to the choice of dialogue and even the line delivery. It’s hard to pin down, but his usual mannerisms felt like they were stripped away, leaving someone with a style of tech talk that didn’t sound at all like what Marshall would usually say. Considering the fact that most of the other characters sounded like they should, it was rather jarring.

Visually, the episode was stunning. The various drawings were disturbing, enough so that it would have been interesting to see more of them. While there’s a certain sheen to everything they do in this season, a less sterile atmosphere than the third season, the production staff does a great job of making sure Sydney isn’t running around the office in her cover garb. She looks like a professional, down to the sexy as hell glasses, and even if she’s glammed-up a bit in those scenes as well, it’s very reminiscent of how she would look at SD-6.

The real problem with this episode is a symptom of its episodic nature. If this episode had never existed, would it really take anything away from the season as a whole? It’s usually hard to judge such a thing with an episode of “Alias”, because there’s always a feeling that some little detail will come back and haunt the characters. There’s nothing to indicate that anything specific to this episode will have future consequences. In the end, this episode is unnecessary, and that’s something that an episode of “Alias” should never be.


Final Analysis

Overall, this episode was a disappointment, exemplifying everything that has been changed and weakened by the network decision to make the series more episodic. The “vampire” angle is somewhat lame, and even though it’s acknowledged by the writers, the means of getting Sydney into the field while infected is contrived. Not only are there missing opportunities throughout the episode, but there’s nothing about the episode that makes it necessary. This is, in the end, filler.

Writing: 0/2
Acting: 2/2
Direction: 2/2
Style: 1/4

Final Rating: 5/10

Season Average (as of 4.6): 7.0

Lost 1.15: "Homecoming"

Written by Damon Lindelof
Directed by Kevin Hooks

In which Claire returns with no memory of the crash or anything after, and when Ethan comes looking to get her back, one survivor will die and another will make a terrible choice…


Status Report

Coming off of a three week break, a lot of people in the audience thought that this would be an episode filled with revelations about Ethan’s motivations for kidnapping Claire and the nature of the “others” on the island. That was the direction that the previous episode seemed to be moving, and certainly the promos from the network promised a big reveal. But it’s also true that the narrative pacing has slowed down a bit, now that the situation on the island has become more complicated.

This first season has been extended to a total of 24 episodes, according to sources, so if the writers are using the typical season arc format, breaking the season into three large acts (introduction, complication, resolution), this episode comes towards the tail end of the “complication” phase. Typically this is when the plot elements introduced in the first third of the season begin to come together, resulting in new associations and conflicts. New information does come with the territory, but usually, the big answers are left for the final third of the season, when the conflicts begin to come to fruition.

That’s assuming that the writers follow the same logic that other arc-driven series have followed, but so far, it’s not a bad assumption. The complications began with “Solitary”, when Sayid learned about others on the island, and everything that has happened since then in terms of the plot arc has pertained to those “others” in some shape or form. Claire’s abduction seems to have been a key part of the mystery surrounding the “others”, and one would think that the reason for her abduction is rather important. But if taken as only a part of the larger question surrounding the motivations of the “others”, it makes a certain amount of sense that answers wouldn’t be provided this soon.

Of course, that doesn’t mean that the amnesia angle isn’t slightly annoying, as it has become a cliché plot device over the years. Based on what has been revealed thus far, it seems unlikely that Claire would get through the plane crash with relatively little trauma (compared to some of the others, anyway) and yet slip into amnesia weeks later. Locke also worries over this, and one wonders if that has something to do with his apparent knowledge of the island. The writers seem to be suggesting that Ethan did something to Claire to make her forget everything after the crash, and perhaps some of the time leading up to it.

Could Ethan or someone in his (assumed) camp of “others” have known about the warning that Claire received in “Raised by Another”, and attempted to make her forget about it? Perhaps they wanted her to willingly give up her baby to them, as if in some ritualistic context. While the characters don’t discuss it (Claire doesn’t remember, and Ethan doesn’t speak much), the scratches on Ethan’s face suggest that Claire somehow managed to get away. It seems hard to think of how that might happen, considering how resourceful Ethan had been in his previous appearances, but until more information is revealed, that might be the only supposition to make.

The last few episodes were more about how the featured character (the one with the flashbacks) affected others through their decisions or how they were treated: Kate’s story in “Whatever the Case…” told more about Jack and Sawyer than her own motivations, Boone’s experience in “Hearts and Minds” was ultimately revealing about Locke, and Michael’s story in “Special” was designed to reveal Walt’s apparent abilities. This episode places the focus back on the featured character, because the momentary resolution to the threat posed by Ethan intersects directly with Charlie’s psychological baggage, which in turn informs his previous relationship with Claire.

Charlie latched on to Claire as her self-appointed protector very early, and the two of them have built something of a romantic friendship, which contrasts nicely as a more innocent counterpoint to the Jack/Kate/Sawyer dynamic and the uncomfortable Jin/Sun marriage. This episode makes it clear that Charlie isn’t just a good guy doing what he thinks is necessary; he’s looking at Claire as a chance to redeem past sins. This makes perfect sense, especially considering the fact that Charlie took the short-term step of giving up the drug addiction, but the question of his long-term redemption was still on the table. Claire always appeared to be a part of that, but now it’s clear why that would be the case.

Charlie’s attraction to Lucy is a nice breaking of stereotype, especially since he stands in contrast with his partner in crime on the issue. This demonstrates that Charlie has always been more interested in women for who they are rather than how they look, which also goes a long way towards explaining why he wouldn’t necessarily be stymied by Claire’s delicate condition. There’s no question that Claire is gorgeous, but how many other men on the island have kept their distance, probably to avoid being ensnared in the eventual responsibility of helping with the baby, if it survives? Charlie seems more interested in the purity of Claire’s soul.

It was easy enough to guess that Charlie would kill Ethan by the end of the episode, but as always, it’s the consequences that should prove the most interesting. Charlie is a man with a religious background who seems to have recognized how far he’s fallen. He’s worked his way towards personal redemption for his self-loathing drug addiction and his poor treatment of a woman he could have loved, but now he’s also killed a man in the process. Will that eat away at everything he’s regained?

There’s also the matter of his relationship with Claire. Claire doesn’t remember much about their proto-courtship, after all, and what little she does remember must be hard to place into context. As far as she knows, she was dropped into a situation where crazy, murderous men keep fighting to claim her. It would have been easy for Claire to see Charile as something of a stalker. True to her previous characterization, however, she seems to give Charlie the benefit of the doubt, though it’s not certain that it will remain that way.

On the other side of the situation, the rest of the characters must deal with the threat posed by Ethan and his unknown agenda. It’s interesting to note that Ethan doesn’t simply kill anyone in his path to get his hands on Claire again; he does everything possible to get Claire back through threats and targeted murder. That’s a very peculiar rationale, since if Claire is his only concern, why give the survivors a means of limiting the body count?

The answer might have something to do with the nature of Ethan and his band of potential Merry Men. If they are, as previously theorized, a population that has failed the test posed by the island, rejecting redemption in favor of a more predatory and primal version of humanity (represented by black stones in some instances). If Jack’s cave group is meant to be those accepting redemption and passing the test, at least for now, then getting them to compromise their reality would undermine their collective “goodness”. In this sense, Charlie could be Ethan’s unwitting victim, should his decision to kill Ethan in cold blood be enough to take him off the path.

Jack is still finding his voice as a leader, and he’s still having issues with Locke in the process. Locke pushed Jack into accepting the leadership role in “White Rabbit”, and since then, Jack has been torn between accepting Locke as a shaman figure and rejecting him as a father figure. Jack asserts himself in this case, which is good to see, but there’s more than a little hint that Sawyer won’t be his only rival for eventual control of the survivors. How Jack responds to others questioning his authority could be interesting to see: will he become more despotic, or will he fall back into old patterns?

Kate has very little to do in this episode, other than to remind Jack (and the audience) that there are more deadly resources at his disposal. One interesting possibility is that the discovery of the case, in conjunction with Claire’s abduction and the threat from Ethan, was designed to deliver guns into the hands of those who are effectively the “alphas” in the group. By episode’s end, Jack, Kate, Sawyer, Locke, and Sayid all have guns. For now, Jack has the power, because he holds the ammunition. Could Kate’s wavering between Jack and Sawyer ultimately change that?

Sawyer plays an interesting role in this episode. It’s entirely to his advantage to play nice with the other kids, because he’s been holding on to the Marshall’s gun all this time. Sawyer is resourceful, and he’s already been shown to hoard anything he can get his hands on, specifically because it might come in handy. By keeping the gun, Sawyer could have been keeping his options open, just in case they ever found ammunition. Now that he has ammunition, and he knows where to find more, will he make a bid for control?

With Claire’s return and the threat from Ethan taking priority, Sayid shifts from interpreting Danielle’s notes to supporting the defensive effort. For now, Sayid seems to be firmly behind Jack, taking the other man’s lead and advising where necessary. It’s quite clear, however, that he’s being courted by Locke at every opportunity. If Sayid continues to get closer to Shannon, while the inevitable conflict with Boone derail Locke’s attempt to gain more converts?

Hurley remains in the background for the most part, but his one significant contribution was priceless. Hurley finally gets to use some of that census information, and while he doesn’t seem at all pleased with the duty, he knows that laying Scott to rest is the right thing to do. His gentle nature has made him perfect for moments requiring comic relief, but one has to wonder, what would drive him into violence?

Jin and Sun have quite a few short scenes in this episode, and it’s not at all clear where those scenes were going. Jin seemed very concerned about Claire’s baby, and the context of the scene made it sound like he was wondering if Sun was interested in having children. But there are still some disturbing overtones to that relationship, and one wonders if Sun is still interested in Michael. Jin was already willing to kill Michael earlier in the season; if Jin were to think that Michael was taking Sun from him, would he try again?

Michael, Walt, and Shannon have very little to do in this episode, though Shannon’s scene with Claire was actually quite enlightening in its own way. Boone, on the other hand, has been doing everything possible to gain Locke’s trust and confidence in the wake of “Hearts and Minds”. In the previous episode, he seemed like a zealot; this time around, he makes a critical error and only gets away with it because Ethan took a different route to get into the camp. It’s only a matter of time before Locke sees Boone make another error; how will Locke react to having someone “weak” in his corner?

Speaking of Locke, he seems to continue working from some sense of what the island wants them to do. His relative inexperience continues to emerge over time, but his determination continues to overcome most of those obstacles. He seems to be losing patience with the fact that Jack is not always seeing things his way, or falling into the role of Arthur to his Merlin, tribal chief to his shaman. One also gets the feeling that he’s impatient when Jack is distracted by Kate and Sawyer. Will Locke always keep full leadership at arm’s length, or will he ultimately decide that taking over is the only way to fulfill the wishes of the island?

It would be easy to say that Claire’s amnesia and Ethan’s death are a ploy to keep stringing along the audience. That would presume that the series is all about the mysteries to be solved. The format of the series is geared more towards the characters, however, and the mysteries and related plot elements are used as a means to challenge the characters and push them to unusual limits. In essence, the mysteries are used as a device to make the pseudo-“Survivor” theme less cliché; the same forces are at work, but the unusual circumstances continue to force them into areas of psychology that might normally remain unexplored, if survival were the only consideration.

There’s a danger to this kind of storytelling, however, because a lot of people watch the show simply to discover what might really be happening. This is similar to “Twin Peaks”, which David Lynch and the writing staff always intended to be more about the quirky characters than the murder of Laura Palmer. When the audience got the impression that the mysteries would never be solved or explored in a consistent fashion, the characters weren’t enough of a draw to maintain interest.

On the other hand, the writers are doing everything possible to avoid the problems that plagued “X-Files”. The writers for that series became so obsessed with the idea of stringing along the audience with plot complications that they eventually wrote themselves into a quagmire. There wasn’t enough character depth and exploration, never mind character continuity, to keep the series going. (Granted, nine seasons is a very good run, but the series wasn’t the same once the central mysteries were more or less explained and the writers had no idea where to go from there.) In retrospect, focusing on only two characters and a Byzantine plot was a mistake, especially in the middle years where new characters could have been smoothly introduced to add additional perspectives.

The writers for this series can probably get away with another episode or two of complication before they have to start delivering on answers to some of the mysteries. Character dynamics should remain at the top of the priority list, but the audience should get some sense that the story is going somewhere. This is especially true if (as one would expect) the series is renewed for second season. Episodes like this continue to shift the various players into position for a long and brutal struggle, and that’s absolutely necessary to maintain the excellence in storytelling. The writers just need to make sure they don’t let the plot threads linger too long.


Final Analysis

Overall, this episode takes one of the prevailing plot threads and turns it into an interesting crucible for challenging the characters. Many character arcs are beginning to fall into place, and while the lack of answers regarding a central mystery is somewhat disappointing, the stakes are raised enough to make it easy to overlook. The writers show more interest in where the events take the characters and what that might mean, and that focus is the series’ strength.

Writing: 2/2
Acting: 2/2
Direction: 2/2
Style: 2/4

Final Rating: 8/10

Season Average (as of 1.15): 7.7

X-Files 4.20: "Small Potatoes"

Written by Vince Gilligan
Directed by Clifford Bole

In which Mulder and Scully encounter a loser with the ability to change his appearance, and when the man lives Mulder’s life for a day, the results aren’t pretty…


Status Report

Many fans noticed that the fourth season was perhaps the most emotionally depressing. Early on, Mulder was finding it hard to keep the faith, and Scully finally discovered the true cost of her abduction. Levity was hardly the flavor of the week, and with the recent descent into self-compromising, there was no reason to expect an episode like “Quagmire” with heaps of laughs along with the character commentary.

After nearly four years of becoming more and more dependent on each other, thanks to various lessons in the folly of trusting anyone else, Mulder and Scully have found themselves in something of a comfort zone. They love each other, which is rather obvious, but they have both slipped into roles that prevent those emotions from being expressed. For Scully, it’s the war between her desire to maintain a professional relationship and her tendency to attach herself to dominating personalities.

For Mulder, it’s something very different. His inability to make an open and obvious romantic gesture is directly related to his overall flat affect. Mulder’s not just reserved when it comes to romantic emotional involvement; he’s reserved when it comes to any psychologically rewarding emotional relationship. Mulder feeds on the negative emotions that have driven him from day to day since the night his sister was abducted. Each measure of truth (such as the recovery of the abduction memories several years earlier) is merely another addition to his internal laundry list of reasons to curl up into an emotional fetal position.

Later seasons would reveal some of the reinforcement of Mulder’s complicated psychology. He might play ball every so often and have a drink at a bar, but he prefers to interact with the world from behind a series of self-imposed barriers. His obsession with porn and phone sex is more than a running joke; it’s an expression of his unconscious inability to communicate to women on a level playing field. He thought he found someone he could identify with, but Diana Fowley turned out to be like so many other people in his life, working for the very people he despises.

Mulder is also unwilling to compromise his obsession with his perception of the world. He’s not going to pretend at normalcy for the sake of fitting into the rest of society. He wants to be isolated, because it’s easier than caring for someone who could be taken away. In that regard, working with the VCU was perfect, because it was the kind of job that supplied his negative world view with an endless array of new and exciting fuel.

Enter Dana Scully, who is the exception that proves the rule. In the beginning, Mulder wasn’t sure that Scully had any genuine interest, and he had every reason to mock her participation. Over time, of course, Mulder had to realize that Scully was something special. She actually began investing in his quest. Mulder didn’t have to know that his personality was perfectly suited to Scully’s weakness for men with dominating personalities. He simply recognized that Scully was willing to walk his dark road with him, and that was enough.

Except, of course, that anyone in their right mind would want to have the opportunities at Mulder’s fingertips. There are plenty of men who would love to have Mulder’s looks, not to mention the obvious inroads with a woman like Scully. All in all, Mulder might have a tortured past, but he chooses, on some level, to perpetuate the negativity in his life. And certainly, one has to wonder why Mulder can’t see what he has standing next to him, especially since she’s the one person who has no intention of abandoning him.

To an extent, he does see it, as episodes like “Momento Mori” demonstrate. But on a day to day basis, Mulder seems to take the relationship for granted. He’s become “comfortable” with Scully as his “Gal Friday”, someone he can flirt with without being taken seriously. He figures that Scully understands him, and that’s good enough. Quite simply, her side of the issue doesn’t come into his thought process.

In “Quagmire”, the point was to reveal to the audience something of Mulder’s psychological reasons for chasing every single hint of the paranormal, when his goals were supposedly quite narrow in scope: finding Samantha and uncovering conspiracy. In that episode, Scully noted how Mulder’s constant search for hope and meaning took him in a direction he didn’t intend to take. This episode builds on that, reminding the audience that Mulder is far from sane. By extension, the writers point out why Mulder and Scully aren’t an example of a typical romantic couple, by any means. Mulder isn’t ready, plain and simple.

This episode has all the calling cards of a “Darin Morgan Tribute”, right down to the casting of Darin Morgan as Eddie. While this episode effectively takes place within the series continuity (a few of Morgan’s own episodes did not), it remains as absurd in its own fashion as episodes like “Clyde Bruckman’s Final Repose”. The teaser is the perfect introduction to the bizarre circumstances in question, where the less serious side of Mulder and Scully must necessarily come into focus.

It’s saying something when even Mulder must turn around and walk out the door. As amusing as this scene is, it begins the exploration of Mulder’s mindset. If Mulder is still struggling to find hope in a world where Samantha may never be found and his one true ally is dying, he’s not so desperate as to investigate Luke Skywalker as the potential father of a “monkey baby”. He’s ready to take a different tactic, but Scully beats him to the punch, offering a rather sensible and scientific explanation (while also teasing Mulder to no end!).

It doesn’t take much investigative work to uncover Eddie, and if there’s any doubt that Mulder finds the whole situation somewhat below his usual bar, he covers that adequately by rolling his eyes about as hard as a normal person can. The subsequent tackle and slide is over the top, and yet it fits the tone of the investigation perfectly.

Upon meeting Eddie and considering the prospect of being romanced off her feet by Eddie, Scully’s theory expands into the use of date-rape drugs, while still remaining very much within scientific reality. At this point, the absurd situation has taken on something of a sinister edge, what with the non-consensual sex, but it’s hard to take Eddie seriously. Just as Mulder needles Scully about the one flaw in her logic, opportunity, Eddie shape-shifts. It doesn’t take a brain surgeon to figure out where this is going, and the short wait does nothing but amplify the anticipation.

Here’s where Gilligan works his usual magic, even while channeling the Darin Morgan mystique: continuity. Mulder and Scully actually remember that they’ve encountered shape-shifters before, and that they were supposedly alien in origin. They actually consider that fact and then dismiss it, right there on screen. If for nothing else, this episode should get an award simply for making Mulder and Scully look like they’ve found treatment for their long-term associative memory problems.

There’s time, along the way, for some interesting philosophical commentary about identity. Mulder asks the obvious question concerning the ability to change one’s appearance: who would you be, if you could be anyone? Scully takes the rather practical approach to the question, maintaining that she would be herself regardless, so why change herself to look like someone else? Mulder considers the opposing point of view: if people think you are someone else, and began treating you that way, wouldn’t you be living their life?

This pertains, on a tangential level, to the spiritual aspect of the series mythology. Scully, a person with spiritual faith and reason to believe that the soul (or something like it) exists and moves on after death, would look at the question from a practical point of view and say that the soul remains constant, regardless of the material form it happens to take. But Mulder, who hasn’t come to that realization yet, thinks less in terms of the person making the change than the people reacting to the change. Unable to see the soul, most people would react to what they perceive, rather than reality.

The funny doesn’t take long to resume, especially when Eddie’s next door neighbor bears an odd resemblance to Mark Hamill, throwing Mulder for a complete loop. Even better is Mulder’s happy reaction at the thought of Eddie’s father dropping his pants to show off his tail. Scully is requisitely horrified at the very thought. It doesn’t take much exposure to the Van Blundht home to figure out why Eddie would have eventually lost his mind, never mind his morals.

Once Eddie morphs into Mulder, it’s just a matter of time before he switches places with the agent, and the episode doesn’t let it happen too soon. While Scully drops some useful exposition about how a shape-shifter might actually do its business (an explanation that only works to a small extent, but nice try!), David Duchovny gets to demonstrate some of his comic timing. But it does lead to Mulder’s decision to check into the difference between Amanda and the married women, which is necessary to bring Mulder and Eddie into the same place at the same time, while Eddie continues to wear Mulder’s face.

Eddie’s visit with Amanda begins to explore the same philosophical ground that Mulder and Scully brought up earlier in the episode. As far as Amanda knows, she’s talking to Mulder, and so she responds as if it really were Mulder. But Eddie doesn’t react as Mulder would react; one can tell that every unkind word cuts him to the core. In this case, Eddie remains Eddie, regardless of how people might react to his altered appearance. Scully’s position, consistent with the mythology, holds.

Mulder solves the small problem of apprehending a shape-shifter by simply handcuffing everyone he finds in the men’s locker room, which is actually not a bad idea, under the circumstances! In a nice bit of thematic continuity, Eddie drops on Mulder in pretty much the same way that his father’s corpse did in the previous act. The inevitable happens, and Mulder is locked away while Eddie gets to live his life.

With Scully’s theory proven, the episode then begins to ask another question: what if someone took your place, and no one noticed? Perhaps Scully would reply that people should notice, especially people who know the real “you”. Otherwise, it’s a rather sad commentary on the person being replaced. Sure enough, despite some serious differences (misspelling the full name for FBI…twice), Skinner and Scully don’t realize that anything is different.

As if that wasn’t bad enough, Eddie spends much of the afternoon walking through Mulder’s life, and he finds it rather pathetic. It’s hard, from his point of view, to say that he’s wrong. He wonders why his tax dollars are going into investigations of the paranormal (something many would, in fact, want to ask) and how Mulder can live in that apartment. Mulder’s answering machine messages consist of paranoid invitations to see JFK assassination footage and personalized reminders to call phone sex operators. One begins to wonder if Eddie can, in fact, do better with Mulder’s material than Mulder.

Thoughts naturally turn to the most obvious that Mulder is overlooking in his life: Scully. It says an awful lot that the woman who trusts Mulder with her life can be fooled so easily. Is it simply that Scully wishes Mulder would make such a bold move and open up, or that Mulder is still such a stranger that Scully doesn’t realize that such a move is completely out of character? Certainly the alcohol had something to do with it, but if Mulder had really been revealing himself to Scully over the past few years, then she would have known the difference. What appears to be a commentary on Scully’s emotions (already known by now) is actually a rather horrible commentary on Mulder.

The final scene leaves Mulder with the knowledge that he has lost sight of living. Scully might find it easy to overlook his apparent lack of personality or interest in personal enrichment, but Mulder has never even thought to question it. In essence, Mulder gets to reconsider his own theory, and he’s forced to draw a different conclusion that he might have expected. Maybe he is defined by how others react to him, but that’s only because there seems to be nothing else there, at least metaphorically. Ultimately, the philosophical point is that Mulder may have a soul, something unique to himself, but it’s been a long time since he’s actually fed it, and now he really doesn’t know what to do about it.

This episode is another highlight for Duchovny’s career, revealing an aspect of his portrayal of Mulder that not many people might recognize. Many criticize Duchovny for being wooden and unable to express emotion, but this episode proves that this is not the case. It’s not Duchovny who doesn’t express emotion, but rather, Mulder who constantly puts up a wall between himself and other people. As Eddie, Duchovny manages to mimic Darin Morgan rather well, and he shows more than one facial expression, that’s for damn sure!

One aspect of the episode that is often overlooked is Gillian’s perfect counterpoint performance. Scully’s psychology is difficult at best, and there’s delicate balance to be struck in the relationship between the two characters. It would be all too easy to overplay the romantic yearnings, especially since the fact that Scully was falling for the seduction is dangerous ground. But given the fact that Scully was at least a little drunk and dealing with conflicting emotions over her cancer, there’s sufficient explanation for it, especially since Gillian makes Scully’s response more passive. Neither character steps over the line, but they come close enough that it required a nuanced performance, and both David and Gillian succeeded.

The rest of the season is largely lacking in humor, so this episode was a nice diversion from the angst that saturates the fourth season. In many ways, this is the perfect time for such an episode, because the humorous episodes are always best when used sparingly. When there’s too much of it (like the third season, for example), it’s hard to get a feel for the overarching narrative thread, since one can never be certain what is or is not meant to be taken seriously. In this case, the overall integrity of the season arc is maintained, and the humor informs the mindset of the characters at this stage of their lives. As usual, it’s not flattering, but that makes it all the more fascinating to watch.


Memorable Quotes

SCULLY: “So, what else about this interests you? Could it be…visitors from space?”

AMANDA: “His name is Luke Skywalker. He’s what’s known as a Jedi Knight.”
SCULLY: “Did he have a light saber?”
AMANDA: “No, he didn’t bring it. He did sing a song for me, though. Da da, da da da da, da…”

MULDER: “How would this happen?”
SCULLY: “The birds and the bees and the monkey babies, Mulder…”

SCULLY: “On behalf of all the women in the world, I seriously doubt this is anything to do with consensual sex…”

SCULLY: “But what are you saying, that Van Blundht is an alien?”
MULDER: “Not unless they have trailer parks in space…”

MULDER: “I’m all right!”
SCULLY: “What?”

MULDER: “I was just here…where did I go?”
AMANDA: “Huh?”

SKINNER: “Which one of you wrote this?”
EDDIE: “I did, sir.”
SKINNER: “You spelled Federal Bureau of Investigation wrong.”
EDDIE: “It was a typo.”
SKINNER: “Twice!”

EDDIE: “Where the hell do I sleep?”

SCULLY: “I don’t imagine that you need to be told this, Mulder, but you’re not a loser.”
MULDER: “Yeah, but I’m no Eddie Van Blundht either, am I?”


Final Analysis

Overall, this episode was a wonderful respite from the dark material of the season’s character arcs, taking a humorous look at Mulder and his complete lack of a life. Gilligan channels Darin Morgan in many scenes, especially when it comes to making scathing observations about Mulder through the soft stick of humor. Duchovny pulls off a nuanced performance, easily one of his best.

Writing: 2/2
Acting: 2/2
Direction: 2/2
Style: 3/4

Final Rating: 9/10

24 4.8: "Day 4: 2PM - 3PM"

Written by Stephen Kronish, Peter Lenkov, and Matt Michnovetz
Directed by Ken Girotti

In which Jack and a changed Tony must work together to help Audrey identify someone working with the terrorists, while CTU deals with a recurring mole problem…


Status Report

This episode leaves little doubt that the fourth season has finally found its voice. The earlier pacing issues have been addressed to some degree, and while it’s still evident how the writers are trying to block out the storyline in easily digestible chunks, it works to the show’s advantage when the writers manage to make the scenes in-between as compelling as the overall arc. It’s also impressive to see the writing staff manage such a relatively tight episode, considering that this is when the scheduling began to fall apart, forcing the writers to work on the script as the episode was filming.

The opening scene drops the audience right in the middle of a modern nightmare: six nuclear power plants on the verge of meltdown in proximity of major cities, with death projections in the “low millions”, and that’s not even counting the subsequent increase in cancer and reproductive damage in the years to follow. The lack of a timetable tells the story: the need for a solution is immediate; usually, an event is given a few hours to percolate.

Within seconds, Jack is secretly informing Heller that there’s a mole at CTU. That puts the Secretary of Defense in the perfect position to flush that mole out, something that Jack obviously doesn’t trust Driscoll to do competently. Jack is obviously trying to find people he can trust, and the list is fairly short. Tony is one such person, but it’s clear that all is not well between the two men. Tony looks like a wreck, and it doesn’t take long for him to remind Jack that Michelle left him after Jack and David Palmer got him out of prison early.

This is an interesting director to take with Tony, because it defies expectations. The audience had every reason to expect Tony to still be in prison, given the end of last season, and seeing him in the civilian world again brought up some interesting questions. Had Tony returned to the world unscathed, it would have been unrealistic (even for this series). Thankfully, Tony fell into darker territory, which is hard to see but intriguing to watch.

The writers use short scenes with Keeler and Marwan to increase the tension. Keeler doesn’t hesitate to issue the evacuation orders, which would have been more of a problem for Palmer. Keeler also leaves out the fact that many will still be trapped in the meltdown zone, something that the writers would have milked to death with Palmer. So far, Keeler has been used more as a grace note to the plot, rather than the subject of yet another subplot, and that helps to keep the story from treading into unnecessary tangents. As far as Marwan goes, his scene with Navi sets the stage for Jack to confront him personally at same time in the future.

Meanwhile, Behrooz is forced to deal with his mother’s gunshot wound, and he eventually convinces her to visit an emergency room, despite the fact that there are obvious drawbacks. This presents an interesting twist for the audience, because it’s not hard to sympathize with Dina and Behrooz under the circumstances, even if they were (and could still be) dedicated to the downfall of the United States.

Back at CTU, Marianne continues to be the world’s most obvious mole, this time making phone calls in the middle of the restroom to her contact, Powell. Powell makes it very clear that Marianne needs to see after her own longevity, and it doesn’t take much to recognize that Marianne is not long for this world, even if she gets away. Moles who get noticed are not very useful, even if they get away. It’s also not hard to figure out that Sarah is going to be her decoy.

Heller gets his assistant Scott to come into CTU and plant false information about Jack’s whereabouts with Driscoll. Now, this is not a very hard trick to figure out; it’s rather obvious from the context what Heller has in mind, especially since the audience knows where Jack is. Yet the writers feel the need to beat the audience over the head, while Heller and Scott nod and wink at each other like idiots. If this is how the DOD conducts business in the real world, one of the problems with the intelligence community has just been revealed.

The trip to Tony’s house is one of the more cringe-inducing moments in the series, but this time, it’s a good thing. One can’t help but feel for Tony, considering how far he’s fallen. His “friend” Jen, while relatively cute, has one hell of an attitude, and it’s hinted that Tony doesn’t treat her very well at all. If that’s how Tony was treating Michelle, then it’s not at all hard to imagine why she left him. It’s also revealed that Michelle is a Deputy Director at Division, which makes a future appearance more than possible.

In short order, Heller and Scott believe that have identified the mole, and they go to Driscoll with the unfortunate news. Despite the fact that Heller did what needed to be done, Driscoll has some legitimate concerns. For all that the various agencies are supposed to interact and have clear protocols, in times of crisis, priorities begin to overlap. It’s far too easy for one agency to take inappropriate control of the resource of another. In the end, however, it’s hard to deny a Cabinet member when he makes up his mind, and in this case, Heller was well within his rights, especially since CTU protocols failed to detect the leak. Again.

Edgar, the resident computer hacking expert, quickly realizes that Sarah cannot be the mole. Marianne is not pleased by the fact that someone has noticed something flawed in her little improvisation. It doesn’t really matter, because in another demonstration of flighty management, Driscoll decides to make up for past lack of action by jumping right to the torture with Sarah. The scene plays out just long enough to make it very uncomfortable to watch, which is obviously the point. The fact that Driscoll quickly concludes that Sarah might be innocent is disturbing at best, since it suggests that Driscoll isn’t sure about her point of view (a matter of minutes is too short a time to make an assessment, even under the circumstances).

Having identified the man that Audrey recognized at the terrorist compound as Powell (Marianne’s contact), a computer consultant to the contractor that developed the override technology currently being exploited, and with the mole supposedly in custody, Jack feels more comfortable about letting Audrey out of his sight. So while he waits for Audrey’s ride to arrive, he sits down with Tony. Tony is not pleased over the idea.

In another display of Tony’s personal despair, he outlines in short order how little he wants to care about his old life or the world in general. He wants Jack to consider this payback for helping with the pardon, but it sounds a lot more like Tony wants to convince himself more than Jack. In other words, Tony protests just a bit too much when it comes to not caring, and Jack has little time for the pity parade.

Dina’s conversation with Behrooz at the hospital is rather telling. After convincing the audience to sympathize with Dina and her son, they remind the audience that Dina is concerned only for their safety, which means getting out of the country. This is significant because one would think that the police would be able to protect Dina and Behrooz from Navi. But Dina doesn’t want to reveal the truth to law enforcement. In some measure, she’s still loyal to the terrorist cause.

Sure enough, Jack is the only one in a position to stop Powell from leaving the area, and backup is too far away to arrive in time to help. This gives Tony the chance to jump on board, perhaps against his best instincts. The scene is constructed in a way that makes it seem like Tony won’t last the hour, let alone the day, so as long as Tony’s on screen, it’s going to be tense for his fans. It really feels like they’re setting up a heroic end for Tony.

Since the emergency room doctor isn’t a complete idiot, the police are called in to question Dina about her gunshot wound. This leads to a rather improbable escape from the emergency room (which any number of security measures could have prevented), which basically proves that Dina has no interest in anything other than saving her son. The trip to the hospital will give Navi a lead, and it also gives them some medical supplies, so it advances the plot somewhat. (Another odd moment: the cameraman can be seen in the car’s rearview mirror, just before Dina and Behrooz jump in!)

Once again saving the day (despite a truly annoying set of mannerisms), Edgar sets Curtis and then Driscoll on the right path. Marianne’s not so stupid as to think that she’s not exposed, so she decides to make a run for it. It seems foolish at first, especially when it looks like she’s going to attempt driving away. But then, when one of the agents attempts inserts the key, the car explodes. So either Marianne was stupid enough to think she’d get into her car and out of the parking lot, or she was aware of the bomb and wanted to kill herself before they could question her. The “stupid” option seems more likely, since Powell seemed to be very clear that Marianne was a disposable asset.

Speaking of Powell, Jack and Tony do a great job of preventing his escape, but as the seconds tick down, there’s too much time left for the audience to feel confident. Sure enough, just as Jack gets ready to celebrate, a shot rings out, and Powell goes down, shot through the heart. Considering the fact that Tony appeared to be the likely victim, there’s a momentary sigh of relief, at least until it becomes clear that the good guys just lost their one solid lead. Preventing a nuclear disaster is looking less and less likely.

Ever since Jack rescued Heller, the plot threads have kicked into high gear, and they haven’t let up one bit. This is essentially a transitional episode at heart, but between the situation at CTU and Tony’s personal issues, there’s never a chance for the audience to feel like things have slowed down. With the nuclear threat still waiting in the wings, it’s not like the story is going to suddenly lose momentum. If anything, the timing suggests that efforts to stop the meltdown will fail, at least partially, and the result will be the next phase of the season arc.

With the story about a third of the way done, the season has managed to bounce back from an early slow patch. There are still a number of CTU character threads that could detract from the overall quality of the story, but this episode is remarkably free of such problems. This is mostly about capitalizing on the best elements of the story thus far, and doing something about elements that weren’t working. In that regard, the writers continue to impress, especially since it’s well known that they are working without a net right now. There are a lot of series with a much more forgiving schedule producing much worse material this season.


Final Analysis

Overall, this episode continued the recent run of strong episodes, overcoming the usual issues that come with transitional episodes. The writers continue to challenge the expectations of the audience, especially when it comes to handling Dina/Behrooz and Tony’s new lifestyle. This episode also ends the “mole” plot thread, which should hopefully evolve into something less annoying.

Writing: 2/2
Acting: 2/2
Direction: 2/2
Style: 2/4

Final Rating: 8/10

Season Average (as of 4.8): 7.7

Enterprise 4.13: "United"

Written by Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens and Manny Coto
Directed by David Livingston

In which Archer must convince the Andorians and Tellarites to work together to have any chance of locating the Romulan vessel, but the death of an Andorian threatens that goal…


Captain’s Log

This episode of “Enterprise” is particularly interesting in light of the fact that the series has officially been canceled. It’s not entirely clear why this should be surprising to so many people. As soon as the series was renewed for the fourth season, the underlying subtext was already on the table: the series needed one more season to reach approximately 100 episodes, so it was worth the investment for Paramount. It’s not a coincidence that the cancellation press release came within days of the contract for syndication rights.

Manny Coto was brought into the fold to ensure that the final season would end the current franchise run on a positive note. Sure, the network and studio were hoping that the series would somehow regain fan respect and get them better ratings, but if they were truly interested in seeing the franchise succeed at this point, why would they bring in someone who had every intention of focusing on fan-driven continuity topics? For all that the fourth season has been the best thus far, it has also been the least likely to gain new viewers. This is all about giving the loyal fans a memorable final year before the long wait begins anew.

This episode is a perfect example of that storytelling imperative. Very little about this episode is geared towards the casual viewer. Nearly everything is designed to appeal to the long-term fan, and in that regard, it succeeds without question. This is the kind of material that the series should have been attempting to cover from the very beginning (and indeed, some episodes of the first season did so). Not only is the process of Federation taken one giant leap forward, but in many respects, one gets the feeling that this is the end of a process. It might have been spotty at best, but the path to this moment stretches back in discernable fashion to the early stages of the first season.

The focus is squarely on Archer’s part in bringing together the four core worlds that would ultimately come together in Federation. Much of his work centers on the difficult task of getting former enemies to realize that they have common interests. As one would expect, this is rather simple when there’s a mutual enemy on the horizon. With the Romulans doing everything possible to destabilize the region, Archer is able to use the unseen threat to advance his own agenda of relative peace.

As plots go, this one is fairly straightforward. The writers recognize the popularity of the Andorians, and they focus on Archer’s need to overcome Shran’s reaction to Talas’ death. Because Archer and Shran have been strange bedfellows for so long, the nuances of the conflict don’t seem forced; if anything, this friendship forces Archer to look beyond the obvious and take Andorian culture into consideration, just as he was forced in the previous episode to take Tellarite culture into account. Having already gained the respect of the Vulcans, Archer continues to take the lessons learned during the Xindi crisis and apply them to home ground.

While the episode certainly succeeded, it’s still not going to rank very high as an example of “empire building”. The process of pulling together the alliance wasn’t consistent enough, despite having roots in previous seasons, to match up to the truly memorable examples provided by superior series. For all that Archer and Shran have built a key relationship over the years, the Vulcan situation was only recently resolved and the Tellarites didn’t even become a player until the previous episode!

Contrast this with the more substantial dissection of alliances and counterplots in the later seasons of “Deep Space Nine”, where the presence of the enemy was more immediate and directly threatening. Under those circumstances, Sisko and his allies had to deal with alien governments on a much grander scale, and more often than not, self-interest was the order of the day. Sisko had to make hard decisions over time, with plenty of setbacks, to get the alliances necessary to simply achieve a solid defense.

Of course, the gold standard for “empire building” is still “Babylon 5”. The entire point of that series was the creation of a pseudo-Federation, prompted by the intersection of an ancient enemy’s return and the rise of humanity as a galactic player. “Babylon 5”, over the course of its five-year plan, essentially told the kind of story that “Enterprise” should have told: how the right people at the right time can bring about massive change in the right places, leading to extraordinary events.

The first season of “Enterprise” seemed to be building on a similar structure, at least in terms of fleshing out the various empires in play. But unlike the Narn and Centauri conflict, the conflict between the Vulcans and Andorians was never covered in detail. For that matter, on “Babylon 5” each of the four worlds at the center of the creation of the ISA went through a long-term transformation, and each world’s crisis was distinctly covered along the way. In contrast, the analogous conflicts between the core Federation worlds were always seen through the filter of interaction with Archer and his crew. Instead of building the Romulans as an unseen threat over the course of the subsequent seasons, the narrative strayed into other areas. In short, the series never became the expansive story of building Federation that it might have been.

It’s hard not to wish that the series had taken this direction, since it would have given this episode a rich historical context. As it stands, the road to Federation is remarkably short and simple. Even if Archer’s prior work between the Vulcans and Andorians represented a major step down that path, it was simply one more adventure, not a major step in a pre-conceived plot progression. This is the result of the focus on Enterprise and her crew, which wasn’t amenable to the kind of wide focus that was possible on a series like “Babylon 5” or “DS9”, where the action could be pulled into a centralized location.

One might wonder why a comparison between “Enterprise” and “Babylon 5” is even necessary. After all, they were two very different series with two very different mission statements. And of course, there are those who debate the relative strengths of “Babylon 5” as a story and a series. The comparison is simply meant to demonstrate how this episode could have struck a deeper chord, and in equal measure, how “Enterprise” could have been a worthy prequel to existing Trek continuity.

Consider that in this version of the “empire building” story, Humans weren’t dealing with conflicts within their own government, such as colonies vying for independence or telepaths attempting to gain political control. In the grand Trek tradition, Humans were effectively conflict-free. They had disagreements from time to time, but Archer was never concerned about support from the homeworld. On “Babylon 5”, of course, the exact opposite was true, and the result was a feeling that anything could happen (including cast changes without warning).

Of the three worlds that would eventually ally with Humans to create the ISA on “Babylon 5”, each one of them went through hell and back. The Minbari caste system fell apart, leading to civil war, which led to a complete upheaval of their entire society. This process unfolded over more than three seasons. The Centauri wanted to regain power in terms of galactic politics, and as a result, they became willing victims of the enemy. This drama played out over five seasons, and was mated with the rise and fall of their enemies, the Narn. All three alien worlds had nuanced characters that gave their particular struggles and shifting philosophies a point of view.

When it comes to the three alien worlds at the center of the proto-Federation alliance, only one of them experienced a true crisis of planetary proportions: Vulcan. Even in that case, the story was only covered at the end of the process. It lacked the detailed fall from grace that gave the Minbari societal upheaval such gravitas. There were some slight indications of disagreement among Andorians on how to deal with certain situations, and the next episode might address some changes in Andorian society, similar to the Vulcan situation. But those changes are unlikely to be the result of any long-standing plot development. And of course, the Tellarites have no background to be discussed.

In essence, when it comes to the creation of the ISA on “Babylon 5”, it is the culmination of several plot arcs, all of which interweave with the character arcs, making the historical alliance a satisfying and somewhat unexpected result of all that had come before. Federation, however, is a foregone conclusion. Fans know that it’s coming, and they know who is likely to be involved. It almost feels like the writers or producers, early in the planning stages, didn’t have the confidence in themselves to tell a complex story of how the Federation was pulled together. It was left to the writers in the fourth season to take the pieces dropped here and there over the past three seasons and make it all come together in a logical fashion.

When it comes to pulling together continuity elements to make sense of things, Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens are certainly up to the task. With the aid of Manny Coto, they take a very simple story and make the proto-Federation alliance make sense. Having already prevented a war between Vulcans and Andorians, and permanently altering Vulcan society in the process, Archer needs to find a way to bring Andorians and Tellarites to the same table.

Archer does this through sheer force of will at times, especially when it comes to reinforcing his logic and making the two enemies recognize the common threat. But in order to do that, both representatives need to feel respected. It’s all too easy for them to see Archer’s strident demands as patronizing. The Andorians and Tellarites need something on the level of Archer’s involvement in the transformation of Vulcan, and the circumstances aren’t well equipped for that.

Except, of course, that Shran loves Talas, and when she dies, Shran invokes an Andorian Imperial Guard tradition that involves a duel to the death. Since it was a Tellarite that dealt Talas the fatal wound, any thoughts of alliance are hardly viable. Except, of course, that Archer is desperate to locate the Romulan vessel, so he needs to find a way to work it all out. His solution is simple yet elegant: follow Andorian cultural requirements to the letter, thus showing respect for their point of view, while making the Tellarites feel more than equally valuable by placing their lives above his own.

The complex relationship between Archer and Shran is portrayed with enough detail and character depth to make the situation work on more than one level. Archer’s latent death wish comes back into play, but rather than make that an overt part of the story, it lingers in the background, affecting everyone around him. Of course, the commentary here is the concept that the only way to lead effectively is often to place one’s life on the line, and Archer seems more than willing to make that choice. (Of course, the only way to get through to Shran and Gral is to demonstrate that he considers the Romulan threat to be on par with their own concerns, thus reducing everything to the most common element of life and death.)

Most of the characters get to have shining moments, and it seems as though the writers made a concerted effort to make that happen. Trip and Reed get to bond again on the Romulan ship (providing an amusing reference to the lack of previous character development when Reed comments on their respective strengths), Hoshi and Mayweather get to delve into Andorian culture, and Phlox gets his token moment.

T’Pol has a part in the story as well, but unlike the previous episode, her emotional control (a sign, one would have thought, of her attempts to follow the newly revealed teachings of Surak) is non-existent. There are a couple of ways to view this. Either Blalock couldn’t keep up the level of performance again, or the writers were intentionally trying to show that T’Pol’s emotional control is still very much a work in progress. It’s easy enough to believe the former, so if the depiction was intentional, the writers could have smoothed over the problem with a line of dialogue.

One of the highlights of the episode would be the in-depth look at the Andorian and Romulan cultures. In retrospect, this emphasis makes perfect sense, given that the Romulan focus appears to be on the Andorians this time, given that final frame. That makes this the “Andorian Arc”, rather than a “Babel Arc”, and that fits the overall structure of the season. So far, two worlds have been the focus of Roluman aggression, however covert: Vulcan, and now Andoria. It’s likely that the previous conflicts were spawned from Romulan involvement, and that gives the Romulan threat scope.

Clearly, the Romulans have been preparing for an invasion, and now that the long-term plans are falling apart, there are consequences on that world as well. As mentioned in the previous episode, Archer’s involvement in disrupting the Vulcan and Andorian plots place Earth squarely in the Romulan’s target sights. In this respect, the Romulan plot is being handled very well, since it gives a larger context to the mini-arcs and the season as a whole. For example, in the pilot, someone was caught messing with Klingon DNA; this (and the upcoming Klingon two-parter) could eventually be linked to the Romulans as well, giving a possible reason for the enmity between the two empires beyond simple struggles over borders. If this continues, the season and series can end with the context of the Romulan Wars and the subsequent Federation intact, thus telling the gist of the story and performing the “prequel” function.

Given how strong the episode was, where time was spent attending to detail, the final scene felt incredibly rushed, as if tacked on to provide an excuse for a third episode. The transition could have been handled better, especially since the writers made an effort to focus on both sides of the apparent conflict. With no prior hint that the Andorian connection would be made on Romulus, the story feels like it could have ended with this episode, rather than spilling into the next.

As already noted, most of what works against this episode has nothing to do with it at all, but rather, what the audience is likely to be bringing to the table. It’s hard not to compare this proto-Federation alliance to the similar plot thread from “Babylon 5”, but it doesn’t mean that the episode should be judged poorly for it. Similarly, there are details about the Andorians, their culture, and their homeworld that continue to contradict the excellent work in the current Trek novels. It’s hard not to wistfully consider what might have been, if the right source material had been chosen to give the Andorians on-screen development.

The episode, on its own, has everything that it should have: a strong plot that actually plays on series and franchise continuity, character development, strong acting, and lots of fun visuals. If some of the scenes didn’t quite work, it was usually a matter of pacing or line delivery, but those examples were far and few between. In short, it’s “Enterprise” running on all cylinders, taking what was given and making it work.

What will be interesting is the reaction to the cancellation. Many times, when a series is in decline, the news of cancellation breaks the spirit of everyone involved. The critics and critical fans overlook those still trying to make it work, and focus on the negative. The final season of “X-Files” is a perfect example, when the writers pretty much stopped trying, even as the cast did their best to deliver the goods.

But some series, facing the end, will kick things to another level. One example is “Roswell”, a series with little or no direction in its final season. When it was clear that the end was coming, the writers buckled down and gave the fans their best work of the season in the space of a handful of episodes.

Another example, perhaps more relevant to “Enterprise”, would be “Angel”. The final season of that series came after budget cuts and tentative network support. The series was cancelled just as the final episodes were being developed, and before the fans could see where all the plot threads were going. Joss Whedon and the writing staff gave that series a fitting end, never wavering despite the cancellation. Many considered that season, in retrospect, to be the best produced in the series’ run. And now, after the fact, the network is very sorry that the series was cancelled, since every “replacement” series has failed miserably.

“Enterprise” has the kind of writing staff and dedication necessary to leave the stage with heads held high. Manny Coto has enough experience in the industry to know that the goal now should be giving the franchise the kind of grace note it deserves. It’s impossible to believe that Trek will never come back; the novels, currently the most vital creative arena of the franchise, will always be there to some degree, and the fans aren’t really going anywhere. Sooner or later, the fans who feel like there’s too much to take in right now will yearn for something new in the Trek universe, and the studio will inevitably want to capitalize on that hunger. For now, the goal is to give “Enterprise” and Trek an end worthy of remembrance. Episodes like this will accomplish that goal.


Final Analysis

Overall, this episode is a strong continuation of the themes from the first installment of the “Andorian Arc” (previously the “Babel Arc”). The character work is very strong, especially between Archer and Shran, and while the development of the alliance seems a bit too easy, that’s more a criticism of what came before than the way it was handled in this episode.

Writing: 2/2
Acting: 2/2
Direction: 2/2
Style: 2/4

Final Rating: 8/10

Season Average (as of 4.13): 7.4

Roswell 2.11: "To Serve and Protect"

Written by Breen Frazier
Directed by Jefery Levy

In which Valenti is caught between his job and his desire to protect the hybrids when Isabel dreams about a young woman in peril, just as an old friend comes around with questions…


Status Report

The middle of the second season was a period of transition, between the relatively self-contained original 13 episodes ordered by the network and the remaining 9 episodes ordered several months later. The decision to give the series a full second season came with enough time to tinker with the four episodes that would have closed the original 13 episodes, especially when “A Roswell Christmas Carol” was added to the schedule, pushing out these four episodes into the February sweeps period.

Collectively, these episodes were branded “The Hybrid Chronicles” by the network, an early example of the WB penchant for re-naming episodes in their promotional spots. It’s the kind of name that sounds really cool, but ultimately doesn’t tell the audience a thing about the intended plot threads. It also leaves the viewer with the impression that the four episodes tell a complete story, which at one point, they might have done. After all the tinkering, most of that was left intact, but some threads were left more indistinct, as the writers began leaving themselves some options for the rest of the season.

Most of that tinkering, as one would expect, took place in the episodes 13 and 14 (in the final episode order), so very few changes were made to the story at this stage of the game. In what amounts to a statement of intent, this episode begins an exploration of the hybrids’ human legacy. Most of the characters have come to relative terms with their alien destiny, or at least have come to the realization that they cannot allow their lives to be defined by the circumstances of their creation. They have rejected that alien destiny, at least for the present…so what does that mean for their human futures?

The question also pertains to those affected by their presence. Unlike the first season, where the human element was mostly an exploration of the direct interaction with the hybrids, these episodes look more closely at the overall impact of the hybrids. If the hybrids are trying to understand who they are, to better understand what they want in life, then they can’t ignore the human world they have undoubtedly changed by the very nature of their arrival.

The teaser places the episode in perspective. Bored with life as a typical teenager, flipping the channels on a slow winter night, Isabel turns to “dream-walking” again. Max is worried that she’s been doing it too often lately, and he may have a good point. This is Isabel’s subconscious way of placing the rest of the world at a distance, symbolizing the gulf that remains between the human and alien parts of her world.

The two dream-walks establish two of the character threads to be explored in the episode: the fact that Liz will never be able to get past Max, no matter who she turns to, and Kyle’s paranoia about the fact that he’s been changed by Max when he was healed. While Liz’s dream is amusing, it also tells the audience that they can relax when it comes to Liz’s upcoming flirtation with Sean; deep down, she’s still in love with Max, and that will always be the case. Kyle’s plot thread, played more for laughs, tells the audience that his banter with Tess is likely to continue.

The crisis of the episode arrives with Isabel’s dream of an abduction, which comes unbidden. Considering that the only such visions came when Tess was abducted by Whitaker in “Surprise”, Isabel has reason to be upset. She shouldn’t be seeing something like that, not unless there’s a connection between her and the young woman being abducted. It’s one of the major questions posed by the episode, establishing the short-term plot thread of the hybrids’ human ancestry.

This leads into the not-so-small matter of Valenti’s precarious position as self-appointed protector of the hybrids. As it turns out, Valenti’s previous knack for playing fast and loose with the rules has not been corrected, and his own people are beginning to notice. While that hasn’t been seen onscreen very much since the beginning of the season, one must assume that the teens’ activities have been whitewashed on several occasions. Now Valenti has to face down an old friend, Dan, played by the always formidable Keith Szarabajka, who starts with the Hubble investigation, harkening back to “The Convention”.

Meanwhile, his son Kyle is trying to work out his inner turmoil over his apparent transformation, the details of which are still unknown. It doesn’t help that he’s equally conflicted about his feelings for Tess, which started out as pure lust and have since slipped into that incredibly uncomfortable pseudo-sibling territory. These scenes are nearly perfect, and one almost wishes that the writers had let these two characters come together. It would have avoided a lot of the confusing and contradictory plot threads later in the season.

A bit too openly, Valenti accepts Isabel’s information, even while he has certain doubts about how easily the situation can be resolved. His inability to lie effectively was established in the first season, and it immediately causes problems in his conversation with Dan. Dan can see that there’s something going on with Max Evans, and what’s worse, Dan makes it clear that he knows a lot more than he’s letting on. Valenti ought to remember that his activities in the first season were very public, and as such, it doesn’t take much for someone to connect the dots, especially when he suddenly doesn’t seem interesting in chasing UFOs anymore.

As her dreams would indicate, Liz is still going crazy when it comes to Max. The past few months have changed nothing, and his actions in the previous episode had to have touched her heart in a major way. But there’s still that enforced distance between them (she still hasn’t figured out the whole “alternate future” thing), and she’s got a lot of emotional energy to expend. Enter Sean, who thanks to Maria’s constant reminders, embodies the soft-spoken bad boy fantasy.

Grant Serenson also re-enters the picture, since Isabel has long since turned away from Alex as a potential love interest. Isabel has figured out that she wants to date people who know nothing about who she really is. That’s a major sign of inner conflict, considering the fact that she knows that lies will come with the territory. More than that, Isabel wants to distract herself from the situation with the young woman in her dream. It doesn’t help, then, when the dream makes an unexpected return just when Grant touches her.

After another hilarious interlude with Kyle and Tess, the focus returns to Valenti, who is being pulled ever deeper into the quagmire of Isabel’s vague dream. It’s bad enough that Valenti reacts to the news by putting official resources to the task, but he takes it too far by assuming that Isabel’s dream pertains to a teen’s lack of communication with her mother. As Dan points out, Valenti’s own people don’t understand the urgency, or where some of the information is coming from. All they know is that Valenti is getting a lot of information from Max and Isabel.

Meanwhile, Maria is well aware of the fact that Sean could mean trouble for Liz, especially since Liz is looking for a distraction from Max, even if she doesn’t know it. She tries to ride herd on the boy as soon as possible, but for all her bluster, she’s forgetting one small detail: Liz is her own woman. Pushing Sean away only increases the chances that Liz will wonder what’s being hidden from view. It’s unintentional reverse psychology!

When Isabel comes to the conclusion that Grant is the one responsible for the abduction in her visions, Valenti’s problems get that much worse. Having already crossed the line with Grant once, Valenti ignores a warning from a judge to leave him alone. His confrontation with Grant goes absolutely wrong (even when the writers drop clues for the audience all over the place), and suddenly there’s plain evidence that Valenti is crossing the line and acting on information that he shouldn’t have. Dan knows all the right questions to ask, and it’s even worse when Melissa Foster shows up, taking away his one excuse for continuing the investigation.

The fallout is swift and inexorable. Valenti is caught between his desire to use his position to help people, even with sketchy evidence, and the need to protect the hybrids. As a result, neither goal is particularly well served, and his own position is placed in jeopardy. The implications are profound, since Valenti was largely defined by his position, one way or another, and the hybrids are faced with another example of how their intervention has seriously affected someone they care about.

The situation forces Isabel to consider the possibility that her mind is playing tricks on her. Isabel is probably still feeling guilty about concealing the truth about Vilandra from Max, especially since it came up with Lonnie a few months earlier, and she’s also seen Max saving lives at his own probable expense. Why wouldn’t she want to believe that her powers could be utilized for the same purpose? Of course, she’s doing it without much of a game plan, which is not helping, and it’s hard for her to use the power when she doesn’t know how to control it.

It all comes down to the moment that Isabel realizes where the abducted young woman is, and Valenti must decide whether or not to risk his career on the possibility that she’s right. Valenti makes the only choice he can make, based on who he is, under the mistaken impression that he can take care of the mess after the fact.

The scene where Laurie is discovered and then rescued is very well done, especially when it comes down to the horror of her particular captivity. There’s a natural aversion to the thought of being buried alive, after all, and this episode plays on that fear. Max’s shielding ability is also well done, especially since it provides a strong link into the next episode. (Max’s struggle to maintain the shield might seem strange, but he could still be recovering from the effects of the previous episode.)

The final scene has a couple of minor errors, possibly connected to the previously mentioned revamping. Laurie mentions that she never saw her kidnapper’s face, and yet, Isabel saw Grant quite clearly in her dream-walking. One could speculate that the writers were trying to suggest that Isabel might be adding her own details into the dream’s content, but it feels more like a writing mistake. The writers also miss the mark when it comes to the bullets. Just the act of firing a bullet will cause distortions, and anything that slows down a bullet will cause alterations in shape. Max’s shield wouldn’t have left the bullets in perfect condition, so this is a case where the writers were fudging the facts to make it clear that Dan and Hansen were aware that Valenti was hiding something.

This episode highlights character, focusing largely on the human cast and how their lives are thrown into confusion by their relationships with the hybrids. Valenti is in danger of losing his job because of Isabel’s dream-visions, Liz is caught between obsession for Max and interest in a “normal” young man, and Kyle is obsessed with the aftereffects of his resurrection. On the other side of the equation, Isabel struggles with the desire to live a “normal” life, even as she resorts to her powers to solve her boredom issues.

Considering the fact that this is really the first episode in a short four-episode arc, it doesn’t make sense to explain how all the pieces fit together at this point. Instead, it’s interesting to consider the various plot element introduced, to see how they evolve over the course of the arc and how well the writers handle them from episode to episode.

The most obvious questions are:

Did Grant really abduct Laurie? Why Laurie was abducted and placed in the ground? What is the connection between Isabel and Laurie? What did Isabel see when she touched Laurie? How did Dan know so much about Valenti’s activities? Was Dan there specifically to look into Max’s connection to Valenti? Will Valenti lose his job while trying to protect the hybrids? What will happen to Kyle? Will Liz become attracted to Sean, and will she toss him aside for Max, as her dream suggests?

There are a lot of questions, and those are on top of the ones still left unanswered from the Skins plot thread. By this point, the writers understood that their goal was to bring the series to a relative conclusion by the end of the season, so it’s not wrong to expect all the answers to those questions to be answered by the time the final arc begins. As the next few episodes would demonstrate, the writers would continue to struggle with the constant changes to the scope of the story, and not every question would be answered to the satisfaction of the fans.


Memorable Quotes

MAX: “Crap…crap…crap…”

LIZ: “Hello, Brad…would you like fries with that?”

LIZ: “Not that bad? Really? Why don’t you look at this? See! Obsession, obsession, obsession, obsession!”

ISABEL: “You know how many times I have cancelled in the last month? I have no more excuses.”
MAX: “Well, tell him the truth. You’ve been battling evil aliens for control of the planet, and it’s hard to fit him in…”

KYLE: “I have become…an idiot.”
TESS: “Oh, but a cute one!”

VALENTI: “We need to do a little looking around, Mr. Sorensen.”
GRANT: “For what? My igneous rock collection?”

KYLE: “Tess is openly mocking me now. This morning, I woke up with little antennae coming out of my head…”


Final Analysis

Overall, this episode was a nice shift away from relatively vague alien plot threads to the effect of the alien presence on the human world. In particular, the exploration of Valenti’s relationship to the hybrids and their role in his life is very strong. Ultimately this episode only adds more questions to the many left over from the first half of the season, but with the focus on the human side of the equation, the writers pose questions that can actually be answered.

Writing: 2/2
Acting: 2/2
Direction: 2/2
Style: 2/4

Final Rating: 8/10

24 4.7: "Day 4: 1PM - 2PM"

Written by Joel Surnow and Michael Loceff
Directed by Ken Girotti

In which the race is on to prevent the mass meltdown of the nation’s nuclear power facilities, while Jack and Audrey must face down terrorists with help from an old friend…


Status Report

The previous episode gave the season a much-needed jump-start. It’s not that the season had been terrible before that (the third season will always take the honors for the worst beginning stretch), but it wasn’t quite as exciting or surprising as the network seemed to think it would be, especially after Heller’s abduction. The writers felt like they were going “by the numbers”, simply covering the pre-determined plot points and moving on.

This episode is no exception, but the difference is that the writers are making it a little more interesting to go from point A to point B. There are some surprises along the way (especially near the end, for those unspoiled), but for the most part, the quality of the episode is based more on how the writers take the simple outline and build something fun around it.

With more than 100 nuclear power plants on a short trip to meltdown, the clock is definitely ticking. As such, Jack wants to waste no time. He wants to take Audrey to Felsted Security, where video archives could help her identify the man she recognized in the terrorists’ compound earlier in the day. Heller’s not pleased with the idea, and he gives Jack a stern warning. Anyone with any sense of narrative foreshadowing should have gotten worried as soon as Heller opened his mouth.

Perhaps aware that the CTU personnel are gaining ground in the personality department, the writers turn to the rather obvious subplot involving Paul, Audrey’s husband, and his disgust with Jack. For Jack’s part, he leaves it mostly to Audrey to work out. He’s probably recalling how he let the situation with Chase and Kim distract him last season, and trying to avoid repeating the same mistake in his own office romance.

Marianne, the latest CTU-related employee to be a terrorist mole (they really need to learn how to vet employees at this place!), finds out about Jack’s destination and decides to do something about it. This sets up one of the main plot elements of the episode in rather obvious fashion. In a plot point that actually follows up on a common criticism of the series (why so many people can make cell phone calls to dastardly villains in the middle of the CTU operations center), Sarah notices Marianne calling a man named Powell, who orders Marianne to pin suspicion on someone else. It doesn’t take a brain surgeon to see where this is going.

When Paul pulls Heller aside to whine about Audrey, it has way too much negative potential. Thankfully, Heller has no patience for fools, and he cuts to the chase rather quickly before moving on to the massive national security threat. More and more, Heller is becoming an older, wiser version of Jack, and if this is the direction they want to take with Jack in future seasons, it would probably work out very well. (Sure, it’s all very Tom Clancy, but what about this series isn’t?)

The writers quickly turn back to the most surprising plot thread of the season: the intrigues of the Araz family. Dina is not at all happy about Behrooz, and she’s even less pleased when her son calls and frantically explains that Navi was the one who ordered the hit. Dina shows some serious courage when she strikes Navi several times, and even when he finally lets his anger show, she doesn’t really back down. It’s a great, tense scene.

While it’s not nearly as exciting, it’s nice to see Jack letting his emotions show, something he hasn’t done in a positive way since the first season. His relationship with Kim was always laced with a certain amount of disapproval, and while there were some nice scenes with Kate, they were usually rushed, thanks to the circumstances. Jack and Audrey get a quiet moment here, and even if it’s just a slight smile and a caress of a finger, it speaks volumes from a man usually forced to bury such feelings.

It doesn’t take long for Sarah to figure out that Marianne is lying through her teeth, and that alone should be enough to inform Driscoll of a major problem with their consultant. Sarah, however, seems too vapid to realize how serious the breach of protocol was, so she lets Marianne get away with it. This scene is also notable for bringing up the fact that Edgar is working on a way to shut down some or all of the overloading nuclear reactors. In a twist obviously designed to ramp up the tension, Edgar’s solution will either shut down the reactors or speed up the meltdown process.

Meanwhile, Navi is ready to have a meltdown of his own. In essence, all of his fears are coming to pass, but he doesn’t seem to realize that it’s all happening because of his own decisions. He’s the one who ordered Debbie killed in the first place, even when it wasn’t absolutely necessary, since Debbie wasn’t at all likely to run to the authorities before the operation began. Navi then went even further by ordering Behrooz killed, feeding whatever doubts his son might have already had. Now even Dina is questioning the plan, and it’s all because Navi (and by extension, Marwan) couldn’t leave well enough alone. (In other words: evil defeats itself…naturally.)

Despite his intense nervous fear, Edgar presents his solution to Driscoll and Heller. Driscoll seems to have other things on her mind, while Heller calmly tries to get Edgar to honestly present his ability to correctly modify the system kernels and defuse the nuclear threat. Shortly thereafter, Driscoll ignores the national security threat to attend to her daughter. It’s not unlike some of the conflicts of interest in seasons past, but as weak as Driscoll has been as a character, the annoyance factor is heightened.

While Driscoll sees to her daughter’s health, the rest of the character’s take time to work out relationship problems. After the writers make a slight continuity error (claiming that Richard was tortured for hours on Heller’s order, even though Heller didn’t get to CTU until the previous episode), there’s the ongoing commentary on the possible cost of the Patriot Act. This could have been taken further, but apparently the writers couldn’t figure out how to make it work. Oh, and Audrey starts having second thoughts when Paul uses fancy weasel words to make her feel guilty for moving on. (As if Jack doesn’t have enough reason for angst this season!)

Dina is forced into making a decision: accept that the “mission” requires sacrifice and be the one to drag her son to the wolves, or become a fugitive herself. It doesn’t help that she’s torn between the love for her son and her love of the cause. It’s not as though she’s seeing the error of her ways; she’s simply not agreeing with the presumed cost of their victory. All things being equal, she’d still be helping with the terrorist plot, even after taking a bullet from her own husband.

Marwan is not at all pleased with Navi over the whole mess, because Navi should have been able to handle that aspect of his deep cover. Marwan eventually accepts that resources must be devoted to keeping Dina and Behrooz from becoming a threat to the cause, but Navi isn’t getting a free pass, either. One gets the feeling that Navi will be dead once he deals with his family, and that could factor into the overall failure of the terrorist plot.

Of course, family issues are also getting in the way of the CTU response. It’s bad enough that Paul is running around, crying to the Secretary of Defense about his marriage issues, but Driscoll finds herself dealing with her daughter’s near-fatal response to Haldol. Once again, the writers pull off an interesting parallel: personal issues get in the way of the “greater goal” on both sides of the equation. In short, both sides of the conflict are ultimately human and therefore flawed.

At the same time, Driscoll’s response is troubling on several levels. For one thing, why wouldn’t Driscoll make damn sure that the doctors know that her daughter is allergic to the most used anti-schizophrenic drug available? And while it’s easy to sympathize with her when she’s watching her daughter fight for her life, she’s taken on a higher responsibility. When it came down to his daughter or the country, Jack always knew which one had to take priority. Driscoll goes so far as to dismiss the fact that the president needs a briefing from her, which is just stunning to consider.

Lest the personal issues overwhelm the episode, the situation at Felsted Security flares into an extended firefight, with Jack forced to school Audrey in basic technique along the way. With Heller’s warning firmly in the center of his mind, Jack does everything possible to give Audrey the best chance at survival. (It’s not his fault if he doesn’t have time to teach her how to aim the gun someplace other than the floor!) It helps bring back some of the tension stolen away after Dina’s last-second decision to defy Navi.

This is good, because now the nuclear threat is more contained, but 17 of the reactors still need to be “fixed” with Edgar’s hacking skill. These are the ones likely to go into meltdown, so the pressure is on Driscoll to make sure it works. Heller seems to recognize Driscoll’s mental disarray, since he also finds it hard to place the nation over the survival of his own progeny, and there’s a nice scene between them that is thankfully very short.

Things at Felsted Security go badly rather quickly, especially once Jack and Audrey run out of ammunition. What follows is probably going to win Badass Re-introduction of the Year (previous winners include Giles on the sixth season of “Buffy” and Faith in the fourth season of “Angel”). The return of Tony Almeida is quite the welcome turn of events, and though it had been rumored for quite some time, the reality of it helps to give the season even more momentum.

As Jack and Audrey rush off to analyze the camera footage, CTU and Heller discover that Edgar’s solution only takes care of part of the problem. Out of more than 100 nuclear reactors, an hour’s worth of scrambled work has narrowed the threat down to 6. Of course, that more than enough to kill millions and disrupt the environment for decades, which is quite the downside. As Heller plainly puts it, the country is looking at a nuclear holocaust.

This episode is no less transitional than the ones that followed the internet broadcast about Heller, but the stakes are now higher, so the effect is less sedating. Edgar’s little hacking job is a bit too conveniently timed, meant mostly to advance the plot thread by a measured degree over the course of the hour. Similarly, the intrigues of the Araz family were meant to only go so far. What made these elements work were the strong character moments that went with them (more so in Dina’s case).

Tony’s return brings another wild card into play, as was no doubt intended, and it’s perfectly timed to coincide with the beginning of February sweeps. (It now rather clear why so many episodes were crammed into the first week.) The meltdown of those six reactors is also supposed to take place within a few hours, making this next phase of the story a nice package for the ratings period. It’s rather obvious that the series is primed for a strong showing, and the audience is really the one with the most benefit.

This is the point at which the writers admit the schedule went out of control. The episodes to come were essentially being written as they were being filmed. In essence, the writers provided themselves with a good starting point, and now it remains to be seen if they can gather their talents and avoid the common pitfalls that come with a truncated writing period.


Final Analysis

Overall, this episode does a capable job of covering the response to the nuclear threat, while focusing on key relationship issues in the process. Some of those relationships are not as interesting as the writers seem to think, but others present another level of symmetry between the terrorists and CTU. And of course, the final moments are a welcome development.

Writing: 2/2
Acting: 2/2
Direction: 2/2
Style: 2/4

Final Rating: 8/10

Season Average (as of 4.7): 7.6