Last week I bemoaned sweeps; this week I am grateful for them. This was easily the best episode since the pilot. The entire mythology of the series cranked up about 3 notches.
In 1999 Dan saved the life of a man who was set to testify against a gang, and in the process made his 1999 self a target of the same gang. So instead of his typical bouncing around from time to time in an episode, he’s forced to stay in one night to save himself – and his future marriage and child – with Livia aiding him for the evening.
What struck me as most noteworthy about this episode was the notion that Dan and Livia are far more suited to each other at this point than Dan and Katie. They understand one another and their lives have far more in common at this point than his “real” life, which is progressively becoming harder and harder to maintain. Katie would like to get back into the TV News game, but how can she with a child and the knowledge that Dan might disappear in a flash? Dan’s weekly assignments are to right the wrongs the timeline has massed up; what if “Journeyman” as a concept is all about righting the biggest wrongs of all? The loss of Dan and Livia’s relationship and the loss of Jack and Katie’s? For the first time in the series, I really, really liked Livia and she truly seemed to have Dan’s best interest at heart, especially in the scene where she ended up in the present, in his bedroom closet next to the moneybag – all while Katie and Jack argue footsteps away. What if Katie and Jack are actually supposed to be together? As was even demonstrated at the beginning of the episode, Jack possesses the potential to be a much better father than Dan is even capable of being at the moment. Jack’s a good man who simply doesn’t know what’s going on (although he’s getting much closer with each passing episode).
There’s something in “Doctor Who” called the Blinovitch Limitation Effect that posits “a dangerous energy discharge will result if two temporal versions of the same person come into contact”. I thought about this immediately when Dan kicked his own ass in ’99. Had this happened in “Who”, the universe would’ve exploded. Not that “Journeyman” is under any obligation to play by other time travel rules, but it was interesting to note that he was able to beat the crap out of his drunken ’99 self without too much fallout – well, um – other than screwing up his timeline anyway. The rest of the story saw Dan being forced to take the place of his ’99 self in a card game and thus he falls back into a night of gambling and drinking, all set to The Verve’s “Lucky Man”. The entire sequence punctuated by the arrival of ’99 Katie was the episode highlight.
But the FBI are closing in and next week things will get even stickier. Yes, the promise of this series is being delivered. By the way, “Journeyman” supposedly has 13 episodes in the can or at least nearing completion. No more have been ordered at the moment, but we should be good through at least the end of the year, what with the writer’s strike and all. I’m sure at the moment, studios aren’t placing season orders for anything.
