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Journeyman 1.4: "The Year of the Rabbit" |
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Monday, 15 October 2007 |
By John Keegan
Visit Critical Myth for an archive of John's TV Review archives, with more than 1100 entries.
As with the first few episodes, the strength of “Journeyman” is the exploration of personal relationships. This episode is no exception. The best elements involve Dan’s decision to admit to Kate that Livia is alive and that he sees her during every new mission through time. Those personal consequences are far more interesting than the complications of the mission itself.
It may feel like the writers are belaboring the point, especially for those looking for more exciting time travel concepts, but I see it as a statement of intent. The emphasis on personal consequence puts the story into a framework well understood by most of the audience. We can relate to how Dan’s secret and inability to control his travels can affect his work performance. The threat to his marriage is far more obvious, yet every new nuance feels genuine.
The writers have made it easy for themselves to a certain extent. Making Dan’s brother Jack both Kate’s former love interest and a policeman is a massive convenience, yet it keeps a solid set of consequences within a small set of characters. Dan’s seemingly erratic behavior makes it difficult to pay attention to Kate’s needs and desires, and Jack is right there to step in. Jack is also in the right position to hear about any possible legal problems caused by Dan’s travels, like the gun-waving in this episode. Jack’s ability to call up various legal issues could temper the impression that he’s simply an opportunist.
This idea could be taken several steps further, and the seeds have already been planted. The question is whether or not the writers will be willing to keep a running tally of every question surrounding Dan’s behavior. For instance, will Jack look for connections between Dan’s car crash, the incident at the airport, and his supposed weapons possession (caught on film)? If not, it could be some other agency, perhaps connected to the scientist Dan speaks to in this episode. There are a number of possibilities, but the important part is the continuity.
That principle, as mentioned in the previous review, applies to the past as well as the present. While there’s reason to believe that Dan would be left out of the official report for this case, his face continues to come up in unusual places. Livia seems to think that the rules are more flexible than one would suspect, but if people remember Dan’s face in passing over a span of several years, it’s possible for someone to investigate that fact.
What this episode emphasizes is the casual hostility of Dan’s new existence. It has no respect or concern for his desires; he is simply expected to act according to unknown rules and undefined goals. One is left to wonder what power or agency would use someone in such a manner. One interesting possibility is that this was a choice Dan made for himself, in some future time, based on knowledge he doesn’t have during the period we currently perceive. That’s simple conjecture at this point, but it would make for one heck of a twist. |
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