Did you notice the nice nod to “Quantum Leap” at the start of this week’s episode? When Dan appeared in the church, marking his first trip of the week, the priest said, “Oh boy”. That’s what Scott Bakula used to say every week when he leapt into a new body.
I was wanting to mark this as the first weak episode of “Journeyman”, but as the episode rolled along I still couldn’t help but get sucked in. Not that there was anything “weak” about the story itself, just that it suffered from major shades of the “been here, seen thats”. The personal stuff between the four main characters was bumped up a minor notch without really going anywhere substantial; the drama was high, but the plotting was low. Last week Katie was a rock; this week she was mostly frustrated and pissed – and who can blame her at this point? Aside from its twist ending, this week’s mission didn’t do a whole lot for me and the show’s going to need to shortly come up with far more engaging missions if this thing’s going to last over the long haul.
The episode took a nice left turn with Dan’s attempts to reach a professor – a professor who knew his father – to discuss tachyons. Later on, the professor called him on his ‘80s phone when he was in another timeline! This guy, I suspect, is going to be a major player and end up giving Dan (as well as the viewer) the skinny on what’s going down here.
I was recently rewatching the “Journeyman” pilot. Dan’s very first trip, centered around a cab, was a little different than the many that came after. I wonder if there was a clue there? If you’ve still got access to the episode, go check that out and then check back in with me. Also, what’s the deal with SoLuna, the restaurant? (Did I get the name right?) It’s playing far too big a role in this series to just be Dan’s Regal Beagle.
Lastly, this was an interesting episode for me to use as an experiment. I’m visiting my mother, who’d never seen the show. She watched it with me, and once I gave her the basic scoop on the show, she had no problem following its intricacies and in fact said she’d be tuning in from here on out. So, well, there you go…
