Resurrection - Afflictions - Review: "Bad Luck Chili To Go"

"Numbers are perfect.
Numbers don't lie"
- Angela Forrester

There are quite a few number of factors that go into whether or not a show gets renewed by its network. Ratings are, of course, a major factor, but not the only one involved in the decision to give a program the green-light. Resurrection, on ABC, was fortunate enough to have sustained good enough ratings through its first season, allowing us fans a chance to see the story expand past the episode arc we got at beginning of this year. However, the rating have been on the decline as of late and I'm afraid there is a chance we might not see the show get a third season order. I hope I am wrong, as Resurrection remains one of my favorite programs on TV now and the episodes are getting better and better each week.

Episode six of Resurrection this week, 'Afflictions', focused primarily on Marty and his boss, whom we now know to be Angela Forrester. An apt name considering the show's premise (angel). Although, I thought it to be one of the slower hours of Resurrection I still enjoyed it a great deal. Sometimes we need an episode to slow down and drown us in facts before we head into another arc or story thread, which is exactly what I think the creators are doing.

Last episode we were left with a cliffhanger of Marty, coughing and hacking his way into the back seat of his car, as it became clear he is one of the infected. This episode explored the virus that seems to be plaguing only the 'returned' and we got plenty of answers from an unlikely source, Angela, aka the government lady. She thinks a 'returned' brought back the virus from the early 1900's. Since the 'returned' have increased metabolisms, when the virus went through their bodies it mutated, only affecting other bodies of the 'returned'. The most important thing Angela said to Marty, however, was not all the scientific data concerning the virus, but from where it originated. She tell Marty it originated in Arcadia, but it was also 'brought' there. Is it possible that someone wanted the 'returned' to get infected? Maybe they got the virus from dug up bones? Angela goes on to state that they have lost 66 'returned' and the mortality rate 23%.

She gives Marty ten days worth of medicine to help combat the symptoms, but not before he is able to investigate the facility he is in and discover some intel on Angela in the process. She tells him she is a statistician and it is somewhat vague at first, but we understand a little better about what she means later on in the episode. She tells Marty, "They hired me for my ability to predict thing that many people think aren't subject to prediction... When it will happen again, how many will come, How long before they'll disappear. Numbers are perfect. Numbers don't lie." So, now in an episode where we get some answers to our questions, we are presented with a lot more questions. How does she know all of this? Where did she learn all of this info?

The cold open of the show revealed a lot about the mysterious government lady, Angela Forrester. I believe the little girl in the yellow dress is the younger Angela. They both are drinking a green and yellow can of 'Citrus Fizz' and there is fire in the background. The little girl in the yellow dress is sitting in a grassy field filled with yellow flowers and Angela has 'yellow flowers' as her cell phone background. I also think Angela is a 'returned'. Like I have stated before, symbolism and imagery play an important role on Resurrection and that scene of the little girl is proof. If you look at where the little girl is sitting, it appears to be an airplane row of seats 'coming to life' (hear me out); the very left seat has no back, then the middle seat has a back with no padding and appears to be coming up from a reclined position and, upon panning further to the right, we see a full airline seat, in the upright position, complete with girl in the yellow dress. It is as if the creators are showing us her becoming 'resurrected'.

The secondary story this week is the continuation of Barbara's disappearance. Margaret continues to reveal herself as the clear villain of this season, however, we are still not sure what her reasons or ultimate goals are yet. Lucille is a little dismayed by Margaret's growing relationship with Jacob and we are still in the dark as to the how's or why's of their ability to understand each other on another level. Let's hope this gets revealed sooner rather than later. Margaret is a master at deception and I'm surprised no one has seen through her yet. Maggie is beginning to unravel, as a result, since she was just starting to get to know her mom, Barbara, and now she is gone. I imagine she is going to need some more bad luck chili for comfort before this season is over.

This episode has begun a new story thread for the season that, I imagine, will play into the final episodes of the season. It reminded me of, and mirrored, the Season 1 episode, "Home", where Dr. Eric Ward revealed to us the '.38 Formula' where he tried to quantify elements of the 'returned'. The season is close to halfway through and the episodes are getting better each week. I hope we get more answers coming up as to the true motivations of Margaret and what she is really after. She must know why Arcadia is 'resurrection' central since she has been around the longest and appears to know more about them than she leads on. Maybe it is something in the water in Arcadia? Maybe it is something in Fred's 'Bad Luck Chili' (probably not)? One thing for sure is, I bet Maggie would love to give Margaret some of that 'Bad Luck Chili" to go.

Thoughts and Discussion

- Did you notice...'Resurrection Red' was a little more subtle this week. The man who responded to 'Grandapa' near the end of the episode was clearly a 'returned', but where was the signature 'red' color? Look closer and you'll see he was reading a newspaper that had a 'red' symbol on the back page.

- Did you notice...Like we witnessed last week, Margaret has this 'hold' over Jacob. He seems to respond to only requests made by her even over those made by his mother.

- Did you notice...Angela has an hour-glass on her desk. Time has run out on it as well.

- Did you notice...The whiteboard that Marty comes across on Level 2 has equations and coordinates written all over it - in black and red. One equation is Einstein's famous E=mc(squared) - The equivalence of energy 'E' and mass 'm' is reliant on the speed of light 'c' and is described by this famous equation. The white board contained formulas for metaphysical objects showing how Angela uses statistical analysis to come up with her findings.

- The government lady's real name is "Angela Forrester". You can rearrange the letters of her name to come up with some interesting words that would relate to her character. Some of the most interesting are - 'angel', 'foreseen', 'foresee', 'fosterer', 'regenerator'. There are lots of words you can create, but I thought those were the most appropriate.

- Did you notice...All the pins on the tack board in Angela's office could be traced back to Arcadia, MO. What is in the water there that are 'returning' people, Lol?

- Marty's 'Form 108' lists him as a 'Double Returned'. He was born in Arcadia and died in Arcadia in 1934. He 'returned' in Chicago in 1972 at 6 months of age so, I suppose, it is safe to assume he died in 1934 at 6 months of age.

- Did you notice...Each person in Jenny's drawing of her family that she showed Marty had the color 'red' on except 'baby Robbie'. Jenny and her mom had a 'red' dress on and her dad had a 'red' belt. The best part, if you look closely, it looks like 'Robbie's' hood resembles a 'crescent moon' with a few stars around it like the birthmark on Marty's neck.

- I laughed when I heard Ray's reason's for disliking the 'returned' - "Returned's abducted my cat"; "Returned's screwed up my Wi-Fi"; "Returned's keyed my car".

- Did you notice...There is a lot of symbolism and imagery in this show. Water, of course, plays a very important role in the show. Nature as well (mostly trees - think: 'tree of life' and the tree in the title sequence - notice Angela's last name is 'Forrester'). Numbers play an important role also - the number 4, 8, and 32 figure prominently in many episodes. Marty is 42 years old; 4x2=8. Marty was born and also died 80 years ago in the same year, 1934. A newspaper clipping mentions 'Flight 328' - 32 & 8 (Thank you Rosemarie, ;) )

- Did you notice...Another show (my favorite) that has 'numbers' as a plot element is 'LOST'. This episode gave a nod to some of the LOST numbers - Marty's Government Form number is 108; his age is listed as 42; the virus affects 23% of all returned; 8 was mentioned a few times throughout the episode as well.

- I do not think it is a coincidence that in the scenes where Marty and Angela were together, Marty had blood on his shirt. We all know by now that the 'returned' wear some form of red to indicate they are back from the dead and I think Marty had blood to indicate he is a 'returned' to mirror Angela's 'red' lipstick. I think she is a 'returned' as well, but only time, and future episodes, will tell.

Thank you for checking out my Review everyone! I hope you all enjoyed the episode! Have a great week!

About the Author - Geo N

My name is George and I am from Detroit, MI. My favorite shows are The Blacklist, Hell On Wheels, The Walking Dead, Game of Thrones, LOST, The Leftovers, The Strain, Sons Of Anarchy, Sleepy Hollow and countless other shows. When I'm not watching tons of TV, I enjoy reading, playing hockey, comic books, weightlifting, and writing. Thanks for checking out my post.

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