Halt and Catch Fire - Giant - Review

Coming off the heels of two stronger episodes - Adventure, where we met Joe’s judgmental father, and Landfall, where we began to see a more intimate side of Joe – Giant didn’t quite measure up. It wasn’t that it wasn’t a good episode. It was. The subtle detail to character interactions were more compelling in the second watch than in the first. And the story had a strong ending – with Gordon crazily digging a 10-foot hole in his backyard in search of a fictional creation for a bedtime tale he had just told his daughters. But while there was a lot to love, the pace through most of the episode was sluggish, and 7 episodes into a 10-episode season, I would have expected more plot movement by now.

I’m tempted to say that the top storyline of this week’s episode centered around Gordon, who is having nightmares about finding the dead body during his hurricane shopping trip and facing his own mortality and his failures as a father and a dreamer. But the theme of this storyline – chasing dreams – was touched upon by the storylines of several characters, most notably John Bosworth, who is also facing an ending (his marriage) and as we see is becoming infected with the excitement of the gamble that has captured the Cardiff PC division group – to the point where he’s leveraging his own money and trying to convince his partner to do the same to support the project.

The episode’s strongest moments were minutes before the ending credits – with Donna arriving home to find blood drops from Gordon’s cut hand splattered throughout the house, which is in disarray; the children asleep on the floor; and Gordon digging a massive hole in the backyard, saying he’s looking for the giant.

Gordon appears to be facing a mental break, and a statement earlier in the episode by Donna, that she was afraid his PC project would “turn out like last time” makes me more curious what exactly happened in Gordon’s previous PC attempt. Was there also obsession to the point of madness? Gordon’s tale that he told the children was of a farmer who had created something great (that appeared to be a giant) and then partnered with a salesperson who stole his idea. I’m assuming this is supposed to reflect Gordon’s back story.

While the final moments succeeded in intriguing me to learn more about what led to Gordon’s fall, movement on this storyline has been sluggish throughout the season, and this episode focused too much on the love life of Joe MacMillian, a less interesting facet of the character than his family trauma and psychological dysfunction.

We were introduced to the character of Simon Church, played by actor D.B. Woodside, a talented and charismatic actor who I’ve enjoyed in several other roles including a current one on "Suits" and former ones on "24" and "Buffy the Vampire Slayer."  Simon is a former, spurned lover of Joe, and a talented industrial designer whom Joe had tapped to create an inspirational look that will hopefully make the computer stand out from the competition. The Joe/Simon drama seemed forced and inserted to plant doubt in Cameron’s mind regarding her relationship with Joe, which led to the puzzling question in my mind: When exactly did Cameron fall in love with Joe? Simon introduces a new design for the PC which leads to more internal debates about the importance appearance vs. substance and nagging realities like cost overruns and deadlines – reoccurring themes as this drama unfolds.

In short, this episode inched the series forward – perhaps more than that, depending on where Gordon’s absurd behavior leads his character in episodes to come. We have three more episodes this season, which at this point leaves me wondering if we’ll have enough time for resolution to the themes and plot questions raised over the series. As always, let me know what you thought of the episode in the comments.