Frequency has an immensely complicated premise thanks to its time-bending nature. Yet these brilliant writers don’t over complicate it unnecessarily. They make it clear where the timeline is shifting and why never leaving the audience in the dark wondering what just happened. Also, an incredibly nice change from most serialized shows is that the identity of the Nightingale killer, one of the big foes for the heroes of the story, was revealed incredibly fast to be Thomas Goff (Michael Charles Roman). Most shows would have held that reveal until the very end of the season dragging the audience around uncertain of when they’ll get answers. These writers are very smart to be handling the story the way they are. Now we get to see what happened to Goff in the intervening years between Frank and Raimy interacting with him. The mystery now becomes about finding him again and figuring out how to stop him in an ever shifting timeline. Raimy is working the case backward while her dad is trying to get a step ahead of Goff. To stop him and save Julie they will have to work together across time.
They have a common goal as they each are desperate to find a way to save Julie. And while she’s a big motivation for both of them it isn’t just about her. Even if they do manage to save her I suspect there will be other consequences for those around them that they will have to figure out how to undo. For now, though, Julie is the one they are the most desperate to save. To make matters even worse they know that her abduction takes place on January 10, 1997, giving them only eleven weeks to figure out how to save her in Frank’s current timeline. Even with a serial killer on the loose and corrupt cops running amuck one of their biggest obstacles is each other because they are essentially strangers. Raimy is struggling with confusing memories about her dad where he was called a corrupt cop in one timeline and a hero in the other. Considering she is carrying with her memories of both timelines she’s struggling to figure out who her father really was. In one timeline he was there for her and in the other, he left her. The contrasts couldn’t be more extreme, so it’s easy to understand why she is struggling so much to trust the voice on the other end of the ham radio. Frank on the other hand, has to figure out how to reconcile his little girl with the voice coming from his radio. They are family, Raimy is Frank’s daughter and Frank is Raimy’s father, but until they learn to fully trust each other their ability to work together will be hindered and right now they need to be a unified team more than ever.
If they are going to work together to save Julie, and countless other lives, they are going to have to work past their issues. In fact, in order for Frank to navigate the treacherous time he’s living in he’ll need Raimy to guide him through the minefield. One of the biggest mines in that minefield is Stan who quickly tried to cover his tracks when Internal Affairs came sniffing around. Stan is a lot of things, most of them not good, but you do have to give him credit for being prepared for any situation. He quickly set up a rather well-orchestrated plan to protect himself which forced Frank to lie in order to position himself in order to help Raimy save Julie. Whether Frank likes it or not, and he obviously doesn’t, he has to be able to protect his family which involves allowing Stan to get away with things for now. However, the tension between these two was very evident throughout the episode especially when Stan made indirect threats. It’s also quite evident that Stan is the one who had Little Jay (Brad Kelly) killed so it’s obvious that he is out to do everything in his power to ensure things go according to his plan. There is not a single doubt in my mind that Stan somehow plays a part in Frank’s accident in the new timeline. While Raimy is trying to undo the past to save those she loves Frank is busy trying to stop things before they start so that both he and Julie can be around for Raimy. At the end of the day, every single thing Frank does is for Raimy. Whether it be tucking in young Raimy and singing softly to her or trying to reassure his grown daughter that they will save her mom it’s all about her. He desperately wants to save Julie, but more to ensure that Raimy doesn’t lose her than for himself. I think he’s starting to accept that his marriage may be beyond repair, but one thing he can’t accept is his daughter losing her mother. He will fight until his last breath to ensure that doesn’t happen. It’s obvious that he is happy to be alive, but it’s obvious that he’d without question trade his life for Julie to be alive and safe again.
While the premiere made it evident that Frank and Julie’s marriage was in disrepair the full extent wasn’t known. This episode provided an intimate look into their struggling family as Frank desperately tried to figure out how to reconnect with his family in his present while trying to not disappoint his daughter in the future. Considering that those two endeavors often conflicted it left Frank struggling to not let anyone down. Walking this fine line caused him to stir up a lot of family issues in both times. The Sullivan family has an immense amount of love for each other and while it was love that drove Frank to fight to clean up his city for his family it was that same decision that broke apart his family.
It is evident how much Julie still loves Frank and that she doesn’t want to keep him from his daughter. She knows how much Raimy loves her dad. They have a very special bond that even Frank leaving couldn’t break. The bond is ever stronger now that she gets to see her dad as a hero. In this altered timeline, she never had to be exposed to her father as a corrupt cop. That is both a blessing and a curse to adult Raimy who now has to somehow reconcile all these conflicting memories. In one timeline she grew up with just her mom and in the other just her dad. It was evident when she acknowledged not knowing that her mom was going to kick him out that she’s struggling to keep up with all the changes. Raimy pressuring her dad to move fast to tell her mom about her horrific fate led to the fight that ultimately led Julie to demand he leave. Everything she asks him to do has a ripple effect all the way to her present. Every single thing he does can’t help but have an impact given that he isn’t supposed to be alive. That impact touches everyone including complete strangers simply because he is alive when he isn’t supposed to be. Yet, Frank is a loving father, and he can’t help but try and accommodate the requests his daughter makes of him. The premise of the series can be complicated, just trying to write about the shifts is hard, but the core of this story is the family. The way the writers are realistically portraying this broken family is what gives the show all of its heart. With the fate of the family on the line, it makes every shift significant giving the series its driving force.
One of the most intriguing things is that Raimy is the only one in existence to know about these time shifts. Frank only knows of changes because she tells him. While he helps to shoulder some of the burden of responsibility to fix the timeline, she carries most of the burden as she tries to juggle what was, what is, and what could be. Something like this would wear down anyone and it was evident from the very start of the episode that she is becoming unhinged. To everyone around Raimy she is living in extreme denial regarding her mom. Satch was doing his best to look after her, but she’s a stubborn woman and wanted to do all of this on her own. The poor medical examiner was just completely confused by her insistence that her mom wasn’t dead yet. Peyton List delivered passionate performances in those moments as Raimy struggled to make sense of everything going on. In fact, List delivered in every single moment of this episode. Her character was going through a lot of heavy stuff and she sold the gravity of the situation with her every brilliant acting choice.
While life goes on around Raimy her world has come to a screeching halt. She remembers a time where just days earlier she was with her mom and fiancé and yet her current present doesn’t involve either of them. She has completely pushed Gordo away who was her best chance at an ally in the present. Even Satch, one of her family’s closest friends is being held at arm’s length. I can understand her hesitation to tell anyone, on the surface the whole story does sound insane. Yet, if she keeps trying to go at this alone it will completely unravel her. She’s only been dealing with this for a short span of time and is already nearly unhinged. Gordo has been with her through a lot and she went off on him. The truly sad part about that is that it was evident how badly she wanted to tell him. It’s hard to know if she’s keeping it a secret to protect him or to ensure he doesn’t think less of her, but either way, she must learn fast that she can’t do this alone. Though, she could also be keeping him at a distance because she is afraid to let anyone close after what happened with Daniel.
Speaking of Daniel, I thought it was ingenious how they told their story through flashbacks to the past. The fact that her mom is the one that treated him after his accident in the original timeline explains why he isn’t in Raimy’s life now. Without her mom there to play matchmaker they never met. I thought it was adorable how insistent Julie was that they would get along. She just wanted what was best for her little girl. The bond between them was so full of love that it makes what happens to Julie all the more heartbreaking for Raimy. Those two went through a lot together and Julie was always there for her daughter no matter what. Her loss was catastrophic for Raimy which made it all the more poignant when she had a chance to talk to her mom in the past and didn’t take it. She lost her mom once already and can’t stand to get her back in a way only to lose her again. When Julie came on the ham radio the struggle on Raimy’s face was very real as she debated what to do. More than anything she wanted to reply yet the risk to the timeline was too great. All in all, it was the epitome of ironic tragedy, because she would give anything to talk to her mom again yet she had to restrain herself from doing it. List portrayed the conflict with such real raw emotion that it was hard to not feel for Raimy. It was hard to not feel for Frank as well, who at this point thought Raimy was his best chance at convincing Julie to listen to him, and she probably was. His fatherly instincts told him she was there listening yet he couldn’t reassure her enough for her to reply. As her father, it was evident how much it hurt him that he couldn’t get her to reply to them.
The talk that Raimy and her dad had afterward was equally as sad because Frank understood exactly why she didn’t reply. He got it, even though he really wanted to clarify the truth for Julie, he understood why Raimy couldn’t do it. He knows how much everything is affecting his daughter and I think that starts to drive him to push harder to resolve things. Not just to push back against Stan, but to put the pressure on Goff as well. He still loves Julie, and probably always will, but for him, his driving force becomes all about doing right by Raimy. He finds his strength to push back and fight against the odds because of her. He doesn’t care how people view him as long as he can set the future back to some sort of normalcy. For him, that means Raimy and Julie safely together out of harm’s way from his actions. He even went so far as to swear to her that they could and would save her mom. Clearly, she wanted to believe him, but with everything they do something else gets messed up. She isn’t giving up, as her father’s daughter that’s not an option, but she will have to find some way to deal with the consequences of each change in order to find the right path to save her mom.
This whole encounter did set up a potentially interesting scenario somewhere down the line. Given that Frank told Julie all about future Raimy she may one day have to use the ham radio herself. Even though Raimy didn’t reply to her I can see a scenario where something happens to Frank and Julie decides to reach out to her anyway just to see if she can get a response since he was so adamant about her existence. I think it would be really interesting to see mother and daughter working together across time as well. Though if that does happen who knows how that will alter the timeline, but there is no way the writers had Frank tell Julie the truth without plans to pick up on that again at some point.
With everything that happens the risk to alter the future is great. Both characters now know who the killer is, but Frank’s actions in the past sent him into hiding. I really like how during the kidnapping and various scenes on the Goff property that it was hard to determine what time was being represented. It shows how fluid time is and how things are shifting. This was a very interesting choice by the writers to give the characters the answer to the big mystery so fast, which can only mean that Goff will prove to be quite elusive. Though, I can’t help but think that they’ll catch him and there will be some sort of copycat that is the one who ultimately kills Julie. With time in flux, the writers have a ton of liberty to develop this story in incredible ways. Satch and Frank are working the Nightingale case hard in the past, so the risk for grand consequences in the future increases with every single thing they do. Raimy now has her mother's empty locket to remind her of all that she lost giving her the motivation to keep pushing forward. The story is just gearing up and I predict that things are about to get quite intense as the chase intensifies to get to Goff before he gets to Julie.
This was another phenomenal episode that challenged all normal storytelling formulas. The writers have expertly figured out how to balance screen time for both times by telling an even story that gives both times an opportunity to shine. While the ratings for this show haven’t been as high as everyone had hoped this is a show that deserves all the recognition it can get. When the show airs next week be sure to turn to social media to encourage new viewers to find their way to the show. This show has a grand story to tell and we can only hope that it gets the opportunity to tell the entire story.
Don’t miss another all new episode of time bending perfection
next Wednesday, October 19th at 9/8C on the CW.
Hit the comments with your thoughts about this episode. Are you loving the complexities of the premise? Do you think Goff will remain elusive the whole season? Will Raimy ever feel confident enough to tell anyone in her time? If so, who do you think will be the first person she confides in?
About the Author - Aimee Hicks
Aimee works for a newspaper in North Carolina and has a BA in Broadcasting and Cinema. She has been a TV lover since before she really understood what TV was and has a passion for analyzing performances and theorizing what may happen on her favorite shows. Her interest in television covers just about every genre, but her first love is the sci-fi/fantasy genre. For the 2016/2017 season she will be reviewing Chesapeake Shores, Dark Matter, Frequency, Gilmore Girls, Jessica Jones, Lucifer, and Orphan Black. She will also be handling the Best Scene Polls for Supergirl and previewing several new and returning shows. She also oversees the popular SpoilerTV feature, Performers of the Month (#POTM) which highlights the most outstanding actor and actress from each month. You can email her at aimee@spoilertv.com.
