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For those who haven’t been watching, Kyle(Matt Dallas) is a teenage boy who woke up naked and alone in the woods. He has no memory of who he is or how he got there, but he can do just about anything, and has a photographic memory. Nicole Trager (Marguerite MacIntyre) a psychiatrist who works with juveniles is called into assess Kyle, and ends up taking him into her home, much to the annoyance of her husband and two teenage children. As the family slowly starts accepting Kyle into their lives, new questions arise when human remains are found in the woods, near where Kyle awoke. As Kyle begins the journey to discover what it means to be alive, sinister forces are watching, and waiting. Kyle’s memories come back in bits and pieces, leading up to a answer to the Summer’s burning question, ‘Who is Kyle XY?’.- Catch the entire series in a maraton leading up to the finale on ABC Family, and catch repeats of the show on ABC on Friday Nights. Kyle Xy Airs on ABC Family on Monday nights.
by Kenn Gold
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KYLE XY - "Kyle Got Game" -- Kyle (Matt Dallas) gets his first experience with team work when he joins the school's basketball team. But Kyle doesn't play basketball like anyone else; with his calculations of angles, trajectory and velocity, he can make a basket basically anywhere. Meanwhile Nicole gets closer to connecting Kyle to the murder, on "Kyle XY," FRIDAY, AUGUST 11 (9:00-10:00 p.m., ET) on the ABC Television Network. (Photo Copyright ABC FAMILY/JACK ROWAND) | ABC Family announced this week that they will be renewing the summer hit, Kyle XY for at least 13 more episodes. ABC announced last week that they would continue replaying the episodes from their sister cable network through the rest of this season. The question remains as to whether the mystery will be explained at the end of Season 1 or if fans will be left with a cliff hanger until sometime after the middle of next year when the new season kicks in. But things do seem to be moving quickly towards a revealing solution. ABC Family plans to air an all day marathon, replaying the first 9 shows leading up to the season finale, which may or may not reveal all.
In Monday’s episode (repeated Friday on ABC), it was revealed that the remains found near the location where Kyle first woke up are indeed those of the missing Professor Kern.
Previously, Kyle drew a picture of Kern, and thought that was his first real memory and not just a dream. Near the end of this episode, Kyle had yet another flashback/dream in which he remembered Tom Foss (Nicholas Lea) shooting Kern during a storm. Foss, meanwhile, hired a homeless man to do a job for him, and ended up killing him and framing him for the murder. He gave the man a drug overdose, planted Kern’s personal effects on him, and left the gun he had used to shoot Foss with the mans body. So it is unlikely that Kyle will get much support from the police when he talks about his latest vision.
It’s a little disturbing that Foss is spending so much time watching Kyle from the hidden cameras that he placed in his room a few episodes back. Maybe that’s only bothersome because Josh (Jean-Luc Bilodeau) recently taught Kyle about masturbation and the notion of the 40 something Foss watching teenage Kyle all the time seems a little off. Though it would seem that Foss' intentions may be darker than simple perversion.
Scenes from next week’s episode show Kyle and Lori (April Matson) sneaking out and going to a college campus. While they are in someone’s (Kerns?) office, they see a photo of several young men, and Kyle (or someone who looks like him) is in the photo.
Also in this week’s episode, Kyle continues to experience the mundane things in life as major discoveries. This week, it is basketball that leads to some significant family/relationship moments. While playing with Josh in the Trager’s yard, Kyle discovers he is very good at the game. Amanda’s (Kirsten Prout) boyfriend convinces Kyle to come try out for the local team, though there is only one game left in the season. Stephen (Bruce Thomas) is excited about Kyle’s sudden interest in sports, and his enthusiasm bothers Josh, who feels his father has never been excited about him in that way. That leads to a heart to heart talk between the two in which Stephen tells Josh that he is indeed the son that he always wanted, and that he is proud of him.
The most significant event on the relationships side of the show is that playing basketball leads Kyle to find friendship with Declan (Chris Olivero). At first, Lori’s sometimes boyfriend seems annoyed that Kyle is playing for the team. But when Declan is injured and the coach tries to force him to play, Kyle sits down and says he is injured too. The rest of the team follows suit, and they end up forfeiting the game. The support that Kyle showed for Declan though, is a bonding experience for the two, and the episode ends with the boys shooting basketball in the back yard.
This is probably Kyle’s first real step towards having a friend of his own, outside of his pseudo family, the Tragers. That is if you discount the comic book geek who showed up in the single episode a few weeks ago. Of all the character's on the show, Olivero's Declan seems to be growing the most. At the start of the season, he was the bad boy, sort-of boyfriend, who was sneaking into Lori's room. Lately, the more human side of the character has been coming out, and it appears that Declan is much deeper than first appearances would have led us to believe.
Also, it seems to have been dropped from the story that Kyle started high school, though in the end of a episode, it certainly seemed as though he would continue.
This show continues to be one of the best new series in a long time, and the family drama mixed in with the science fiction background is well done. There are still a few annoyances, like the droll voice over which doesn't seem to add much to the story, and the on-going cat fight between Lori and her bitchy best friend. Thankfully, that subplot was resolved tonight also, since it was starting to wear thin. ABC Family has achieved a delicate balance, mixing in the stranger elements of the Sci-Fi side of this show, with the day to day drama of family life with teenagers. As the ratings attest, they seem to have the mix mostly right. It will be interesting to see where the story can go, however, if the secret is revealed in the finale, and people are no longer asking ‘Who is Kyle XY?’. |
