Contributor: Henry T.
Written by Leigh Dana Jackson and Mimi Won Techentin
Directed by J. Miller Tobin
This show continues to have characters say that Henry Martin is a hero or a rising star or that they see something great in him that would border on being star-struck. I don’t see any of that. It’s meant to attach more meaning to his decisions, thus creating a conflict with what Jane wants in this episode. She rightly feels scared for her life following the attack on Halloween and wants to leave New York as soon as possible. Both of the Dorans act like they are hands off on the final decision, but they have their claws in Henry. Meanwhile, Jane is discovering more of her past history and her connection with the Drake by using Nona’s help.
I question the decision by the writers to hold off on this storyline because it should be the driving force of the show instead of constantly being pushed into the background. The last few minutes of the episode were much more interesting than Henry and Jane attending yet another posh party function as yet another example of the sophisticated high-profile life they stepped into when they moved into the Drake. It does present more questions as to the nature of the Drake itself and what the relationship between the building and its residents might truly be.
The show is keeping two subplots alive that aren’t of particular interest to me, simply because they are repeating the same motions with little variation on them. Brian is still reeling from what looks like the breakup of his marriage to Louise. He tells Alexis (and partly to Henry) that he’s been unhappy for some time in that marriage, even though there’s been no outward sign of their malaise. The breakup was caused by a number of outward factors, including Alexis manipulating the situation to her advantage and an elevator trying to eat Louise. After that incident, you would think the residents might consider taking the stairs once in a while, but as the flashback in this episode demonstrates, the elevator seems to be the only viable way to get around in the Drake. Now that Alexis has moved into the Drake (which isn’t much of a surprise), she will be in Brian’s life even more than she was before. It seems like the show is heading down a path where the only alternative Brian has is to murder Alexis.
The other subplot is with Dr. Evans and the continuing saga of Kandinsky the killer. The doctor’s debt to Gavin grows a bit, and I liked that he couldn’t care less about Brian’s romantic problems, but this isn’t new material for the show to work with. Keeping Kandinsky alive isn’t reducing his debt to Gavin and it’s starting to look like he will owe Gavin for as long as he deems the doctor to be around. Kandinsky at least shows up for a brief time as the ambulance driver who is out to kill Victor Shaw under Gavin’s orders. Shaw being in the episode means that Olivia also got into the act by poisoning him at the function with a deadly kiss. It was the first time in the series that Olivia did something proactive instead of just dressing up for a glamorous occasion.
Jane looked like she was ready and willing to leave New York, and spends much of the episode telling other characters that she will do so. Of course, since Nona and her previously mute and catatonic grandmother said otherwise, that means she will eventually stick around. The notion that Nona and her relatives can invade dreams, or specifically dreams of “a child of the Drake”, is something very much in lock-step with the supernatural feel of the show. It’s obvious that the little girl in Jane’s dream is Jane herself as a little girl, which is confirmed later in the episode with the photograph that Nona has. I saw that revelation coming, although Jane should have been faster on the uptake given last episode’s reveal that her grandmother was a former resident of the Drake. Jane’s necklace proves key to the events at the end of the episode. I really liked the reveal of the spiral staircase beneath the Drake with the necklace being inserted into the floor’s dragon mosaic.
The notion that the lead character being someone who is “special” is nothing new (and especially irksome when no one explains exactly why that character is so special), but the spiral staircase and the little gears that close around Jane suggest that it might lead to a control mechanism of some kind for the Drake. Was Jane meant to be in Gavin’s position as master of the Drake? It could set up an interesting conflict that the omniscient Gavin would not see coming. Jane could make a play for his position, and that might lead to her and Henry usurping the Dorans. Why the show didn’t elect to go to this earlier is something that baffles me. It is what is keeping the show from using all of its tools to the fullest effect. Any possible storylines for the future might never materialize now.
Score: 6/10