Who knew an episode about forced psychotherapy could be so touching?
As a mother myself, I completely empathized with Kiera in a state of emotional despair because it was Sam's birthday. It would have been beyond infuriating to be told that I had to either get over it, or I could lose my memories of my son forever. Rachel Nichols did a good job with the anger and grief Kiera was experiencing, especially in that scene in the conference room where she finally let it all go and accepted that she might never see Sam again.
Alessandro Juliani as the "onboard shrink" was pretty much perfect, and symbolically, he was a terrific outward representation of Kiera's inner emotional turmoil. Just as things with the VPD were going nuts, Kiera couldn't outrun "Mr. Fairweather," couldn't escape him, couldn't outwit him. All she could do was rein in her feelings and cooperate with him. Mr. Fairweather was absolutely correct that Kiera was feeling guilty for abandoning her child, even though it certainly wasn't her fault.
Interestingly, it was future Alec's fault that Kiera abandoned Sam, and future Alec who created Mr. Fairweather. The thing is, Alec's program actually did its job. Mr. Fairweather kept Kiera from acting inappropriately and then compassionately helped her through the crisis, even though the threat of what would happen if she failed was way too harsh. We keep being reminded of Alec's current age (taking a skateboard to work? Really?) while we are also reminded of his uber-genius as he made Kellog give him 51% control of their new venture. It's not that Alec doesn't deserve a supercomputerized batcave of his very own, but doing it with Kellog feels like a huge mistake.
I was waiting for the reveal that Jason is Alec's father, but we didn't get it. We did get time travel plans, though, and Alec's promise that he will reverse engineer a way home for Jason. Alec invented time travel, didn't he? So those plans had to be Alec's in the first place, right? Round and round we go.
Meanwhile back at VPD, meet the new boss. Not the same as the old boss. Inspector Nora Harris sure made Dillon look good. I was worried about Betty, although I shouldn't have been. Betty was framed to look like the mole, because as it turns out, she is the mole. Pretty cool writing there. How did it happen? Was she turned after the meeting Dillon asked her to attend, or has it been even longer than that?
Bits and pieces:
— The date was March 15, 2013. Sam's birthday is the Ides of March.
— Alec has a business card. SadTech finally exists.
— I loved how Mr. Fairweather realized he couldn't see himself in the bathroom mirror and then appeared there, too.
— Also loved Kiera's toilet paper introduction to her new boss.
— This week's Most Obvious Symbolism was Sam's toy soldier. When you think about it, Kiera herself is also a toy soldier.
— Kellog's hair is getting progressively shorter.
— Why does Carlos look so much hotter this season? He can carry off very dark blue under very dark gray. Who does that?
Quotes:
Alec: "If Escher's running it [Piron], then he's like the Great Oz, hands on lever, all curtain..."
Kellog: "Still has that new server smell."
Kiera: "I lost my temper."
Alec: "So Doctor Feelweird cut us off?"
Kiera: "Okay. Full psychological health in an hour or less. Let's do it."
Alec: "Jason, did you have something to do with that time travel device?"
Jason: "I know it. I mean, I knew it. I know it. You know it better. You will know it."
Jason: "Retinal scanner. Juicy."
Four out of four, hmm. I guess it should be toy soldiers, but I sort of want to go with secret moles or possibly unexpected wads of toilet paper,
Billie
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Billie Doux loves good television and spends way too much time writing about it.
At first look, this episode seems to be filler, but I liked that they took their time to give Kiera much needed development regarding her son.
ReplyDeleteThe “onboard shrink” is a terrific and diabolical idea. Big Brother Alec Sadler sure knew how to do his stuff. A shrink programmed to be inside your head that’s able to delete your memories? That’s pure evil. As you pointed out, Alessandro Juliani was perfect on the role, he had this brilliant mixture of gentle and stoic.
The twist with Betty was really cool. They really threw us off, having her as the target of a set up only to reveal it was not a set up at all. Good writing there.
“The date was March 15, 2013. Sam's birthday is the Ides of March.”
Now I wonder if that was deliberate. I keep expecting Kiera’s son to pop up as an adult any time. Maybe his birthday is a clue of the role he'll play? Maybe I've been thinking too much about this show?
Would be nice if we could see the date of when you did reviews.
ReplyDeleteAnyway why did you stop with this season's review? I see you did 3 but you're missing most from this one.
Tyler, I haven't stopped. The URL says it was "2014/10". In fact, it was just last weekend, and I'll be posting the next one in a couple of days. I did season three as it aired on Syfy and am now filling in seasons one and two, at the rate of one review a week. Let's hope for a season four that I can review as it airs next spring!
ReplyDeleteGood episode and great review Billie! I am slowly making my way through this show and enjoying it more with each episode. I agree that the scene in the conference room was very well done - and she doesn't even have her own children so I am very impressed! I am looking forward to the rest of this season and season 3.
ReplyDelete