The Tomorrow People returned tonight with an episode that, considering my low opinion of the midseason finale, rather impressed me. It was a good start to the year, a start which will hopefully be built upon in the coming weeks and months.
Starting with where we left off in 2013 (and with my dislike of this episode), Stephen had been killed and revived, in an attempt to reach Limbo. Supposedly, he had and he needed to find his father's body. Those (like myself) who weren't happy about not seeing into Limbo in the last episode were given what they wanted. It was an interesting interaction, especially considering we now know what happened to Stephen's father. It was nice to see the two have an actual conversation, considering last time there wasn't much of one.
_595_slogo.jpg)
Apparently, Simon Plame needs to be found. While for a large portion of this episode, I feared they wouldn't revisit Stephen's search, they did. Supposedly, Jedikiah cremated Roger and killed Plame for trying to steal Roger's corpse (before he cremated him, obviously). Obviously, we aren't exactly going to trust Jedikiah, and as John said "Jedikiah's lies tell lies." However, if this storyline, spanning four episodes, has resulted in a brick wall being slammed in Stephen's face, what was the point? I hope they go somewhere with this, because otherwise this was a hell of a lot of wasted storyline.
John decided to clean the slate, and tell the rest of the Tomorrow People what he did to Roger. Unfortunately for him, they didn’t take it very well. Seriously though, did he expect them to just forgive him? Anyway, as a result of this, Cara was elected as the new leader. I particularly enjoyed the voting method – using telekinesis to move the candles in one person’s direction. If only all elections in the real world could be that cool…
I’m interested to see how Cara handles being the leader. We already see in this episode how she seems to crack under pressure, trying to go down roads that she should not be going down – namely giving up Morgan. John was right when suggesting that she needs to realise that Morgan is one of them. Obviously, we can’t judge her leadership on one episode, but I am looking forward to seeing how and where she takes the Tomorrow People next.
_595_slogo.jpg)
Onto the main story, and we learn about Ultra’s ‘research facility’ called The Citadel. Even the name sounds creepy. While Russell believes it only to be a myth, it is very real. We learn that this is where the Anex project originated. I like how they can connect these terrible things at Ultra to John’s past. It gives a much higher emotional hit on the group and it also allows us to realise how terrible it was, having learned about (some of) what happened to John at Ultra.
Errol, the rogue test subject, was highly skilled at telepathy. His ability to block people out of his mind was a cool party trick, even if Stephen and Russell got the brute force of it. He was also able to change the path of the tranquilizer dart, which to my recollection isn’t something we’ve yet seen. While the methods may be horrific, they do seem to produce some useful results.
Cara’s plan to break into the Citadel seemed a good one, until it was actually put into practice. Jedikiah was right by calling it “profound recklessness”. It was nothing short of illogical; just an impulsive decision to try to help the ‘inmates’, a plan which resulted in saving one girl and losing Errol. Sure, saving that girl and allowing her a life can be considered a success, but the fact that Cara almost died on the same day as she was appointed leader made this close to a failure. Hopefully her future plans won’t be so reckless.
_595_slogo.jpg)
Jedikiah’s trust issues were brought right to the surface again here. John’s fantastic plan of shooting Stephen to prevent suspicion falling on him almost completely backfired… but it was quite funny. Jedikiah’s seldom seen unforced smile was a nice touch. Of course, Stephen didn’t find it so funny, what with him bleeding and all. It makes me wonder as to when Jedikiah will begin to trust Stephen. So far, he seems to have no trust invested in his nephew at all. Stephen needs to get his uncle to trust him, and fast.
In Stephen’s home life, his mother has gotten herself a new boyfriend. From the second it was mentioned, I immediately thought it would just happen to be The Founder. Obviously, it wasn’t. But I expected the twist from the second that Peter had walked in the door to take her out (and make the Ghostbusters reference). There was obviously going to be another layer to this story, otherwise it is basically a soap opera story. I’m not sure how Stephen will proceed, but I have no doubt he’ll tell his fellow Tomorrow People. I’m also still sticking with my theory that his mother is a Tomorrow Person.
Odds and ends:
- Ultra finally replaced TIM! How long ago was it that John stole him? Anyway, ALICE (Elizabeth Hurley) is the exact same as TIM, with the very serious outlook on computer life. The irony of Luka saying “You look like death” and “Could you be less psyched for mom?” was fantastic.
- Any chance that Cara could be jealous of Morgan cutting John’s hair? Is she going to join the Stephen-Cara-John love triangle?
- I love how happy Stephen seemed when he was told he didn’t have to vote.
- That hand scene…. That was not nice.
