Contributor: J.M.
Written by Sam Ernst and Jim Dunn
Directed by Paul Fox
With the telegraphed ending of Part 1, I was more than concerned about how predictable this episode would become. A hunt for the girl who can bring Nate back to life, all while Tommy tries to hide the girl or keep them from finding a way to bring Nate back to life. It had all the makings of a predictable and boring hour of television, prolonging the inevitable confrontation and search as long as possible. But the writers went and did something unexpected: instead of holding all the elements apart, artificially prolonging the tension, they brought them all together early and let the results play out on screen.
I was more than pleasantly surprised by the decision to let not only Tommy find Noelle, but kill her off. The move was simply brilliant, and gave the episode a lot more room to grow. After last episode’s fling with Duke, you get to see Audrey in full-on panic mode, prepared to do just about anything to get Nate back, and that meant finding Moira and activating her Trouble. The tension was very well done during the hunt for Moira as well, with everyone tip-toeing around each other, trying to set themselves up for the first shot at saving Moira. The story that her sister saved her at the expense of their father was not only tragic, but a fitting way to redeem Moira’s character. The only issue I have is it seemed like Claudia Black didn’t really fit in the role. Not really sure what I could put my finger on why, but it seemed a bit of a bad fit. While it didn’t detract from the power of the story, it certainly kept it from being a grand slam.
The second plot thread of the episode managed to both lighten up the episode and do a much better job of logically moving the Bolt Gun Killer plot forward, bringing Vince and Dave into play and linking them into the plot. Vince’s heartfelt confession was touching at the end, though it was really odd not to see Audrey try and push for more answers, particularly how close her time is coming. But there is a problem going forward: the lack of urgency about Audrey’s eventual disappearance. Perhaps it’s a writing issue, and the characters have mentioned it, but it just seems phoned in and haphazardly executed, particularly given the real world issue of just letting your main character disappear from the stage.
The other big issue hanging over the season has been the disappointing Bolt Gun Killer plot. Making Tommy the killer does seem to be rife with issues and it was nice that Nate acknowledged as much at the end of the episode. The telegraphed death was quite frankly ridiculous, and it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know that not only did Tommy not die, but he’ll be back trying to get into the mysterious ‘Barn’ Vince mentioned and saw at the end of the episode.
While the season is beginning to move towards its conclusion, there are still a lot of pieces left on the board that hopefully the writers will have time to move into position for a thumping finish.
Score: 8/10
