Category: Journeyman (Page 4 of 6)

I wondered some time ago when Dan would botch his first job. While he didn’t necessarily screw up this week’s mission, he certainly went off on a tangent that’s going to haunt him next week (and maybe even beyond.)

For the second time in two weeks, Dan traveled into one hell of a party scene – only this time it was an early-90’s rave (boy, did that take me back…). Amidst the club kids dosing on ecstasy and acid, he sees Livia – but it’s Livia from ’92! When he asks her what they’re doing there, she’s blissed out and doesn’t even recognize him. Once he realizes that this a version of Livia that’s never even met him, he moves on to do his token sleuthing. He notices a brick wall that seems unstable due to the thumping rave beats. He quite easily knocks a few bricks out of place and sees a young girl on the other side.

Afterwards, it becomes clear (at least to Livia and the viewer) that the mission is to protect the young girl, Emily, who grows up to be played by Indigo of “Weeds”. It’s Dan’s job to keep her on the straight and narrow. Unfortunately, back in the present, Zack is acting up both at home and at school. In one of the episode’s biggest leaps of faith, we’re asked to believe that Dan in turn acts out on his mission because of the way his son is acting up.

Anyway, Dan becomes convinced that this creepy realtor who holed up Emily will strike again. He enlists Jack in the present in his quest to put this guy away. Livia repeatedly warns him not play outside the Journeyman rulebook. He ignores her by insisting that he can do his mission and right this other wrong as well. He seemingly accomplishes both, but it all comes back to bite him in the ass in the episode’s final moments. In the present, the timeline has been altered: Jack has no memories of helping Dan and the creepy realtor guy has been released from prison and knows where Dan and his family live.

If it all sounds confusing, that’s because my recap didn’t do the episode justice. It played out in as uncomplicated a manner as one could imagine and delivered a true time travel mind fuck ending (although, admittedly, I kinda saw it coming). But certainly critics of the series who wonder about screwing things up in the past and the consequences they might have on the present should feel better after this episode. And the previews for next week – which showed Livia revealing herself to Jack – make “Journeyman’s” future look quite bright indeed.

And no – I’m not speaking of ratings…according to AICN, the show is on the precipice of cancellation (click here for this tidbit).

Keep an eye out here at Premium Hollywood for Will Harris’ upcoming interview with “Journeyman” creator Kevin Falls.

It was odd enough for “Journeyman” to cast John Schneider as the host of a ‘70s swingers key party…but to cast him in the part for only one scene? (Granted, I believe it was his voice that showed up later on the phone, but still…) What’s the deal with Bo Duke anyway? He’s going to be showing up on “Nip/Tuck” this season as a rather affluent porno empire owner as well. Isn’t this the guy who used to be squeaky clean and promoted family values and the like? Has Pa Kent finally realized that working in Rome requires doing as the Romans do? (Perhaps Kevin McKidd gave him some tips about working in “Rome”?) Not that I’m complaining. Schneider’s paid his dues — I say let him swing and peddle smut. You’ll get no complaints from me.

But Schneider the swinger wasn’t the real bomb dropped this week: Livia is from 1948! Her entire relationship with Dan was a fluke. I didn’t see that one coming, did you? Just when I thought I was starting to figure them out… And the mysterious Dr. Langley showed up again, and again he said nothing, but seemed to know everything. Actually he did indicate that the government had a very keen interest in his work, and that Dan needed to be careful in that regard. (He certainly wasn’t surprised by Dan disappearance.) But Dan’s getting it from all sides at this point, isn’t he? It’s starting to seem like Dan’s only comfort zone is when he’s traveling. Back home the FBI’s breathing down his neck about the Dylan McLeen stash — which he got rid of at least some of in this episode. Actually, that wasn’t entirely clear: did he give all the money to the girl, or just some of it? If not, then where’s the rest? And then there was a matter of a certain $20 bill from the present that looked counterfeit in the past that’s haunting him as well. And how exactly did Jack end up with that in the last scene? I expect to a big turnaround where Jack’s concerned here shortly. He was more for his bro than ever before this week.

After the intensity of last week, this was clearly a transitional/setup episode, designed to spin the action around in another direction for the last third of the known season. There’s been so much talk of new series getting the axe because of the writer’s strike and it wouldn’t surprise me if “Journeyman” ended up being a casualty. On the other hand, the optimist in me is thinking that there’s a lot of paranoia going on, and the networks would be silly to just cancel all the new shows at this point. It’s only been a week since this thing started and it’s already ballooning up into the end of TV as we know it! NBC needs to start rerunning “Journeyman” over from the beginning after this run completes. Or have a marathon. Or something. Many people simply didn’t get into this show and this point would likely be confused if they tried. But if the nets don’t have any other product, it’s something they should consider. I know there’s a bigger audience out there for this show than the ratings system is showing and I’m surprised by how frequently I discover people watching it that I never would have guessed would be into such a show.