Stitchers has tackled a lot of topics over the past three seasons, but aliens was a new one even for this show. It’s actually quite odd that it took them this long to do an alien case though. Even more interesting was the number of characters who actually believed versus the one that didn’t. As Cameron noted, as men and women of science it was odd to him how many of them actually believed in aliens. Well, in defense of all the other characters, their arguments for aliens held a lot more weight than Cameron’s skepticism against them. It is a bit foolish to think that in such a vast network of galaxies and universes that we are the only singular species to actually evolve into intelligent life. Why haven’t they made contact with us yet if they are indeed out there? Would you want to interact with a species that regularly shoots first and asks questions later? We’re a species that find any excuse under the sun to start wars with fellow humans and sometimes over the pettiest of things. If aliens are smart they’ll just let us humans keep thinking we’re alone as they go on about their alien business far away from us. There are arguments for why an alien encounter could be interesting, but an equal number of arguments for why we as a human race might just be better off doing our own thing.
It was a nice touch that the show made Cameron the only real skeptic and it was true to who he is as a character that he’d be skeptical. Even if in the end everything did turn out to be a hoax it still tackled a hot topic in the scientific community. Like Cameron noted, it was interesting that Linus was such a big believer too. Camille, Kirsten, and Fisher all made perfect sense, but Linus was a bit of a surprise, but a good surprise. It was a really fun and unique case of the week that went a little beyond what they normally do. The killer became kind of obvious about the time she appeared on screen, but that’s okay because it was fun watching the team work the case. Plus it took Kirsten and Cameron on a cool trip to Dreamland where it was fun to watch them work together in the field for the first times since their reconciliation.
While the case was the center of the narrative of the episode it wasn’t the biggest part of it. The driving core of the episode was what was going on with the characters. They’ve all been through emotional roller coaster rides lately, especially in terms of their relationships, and they each needed to regroup and evaluate what their next steps are. Fisher was dealing with a lot in regards to his wife, Stephanie, and trying to figure out what to do about her promotion to D.C. and what that meant for his own career. In the past, he picked his career over their marriage and this time they both ended up doing the exact same thing. Even though it looked like they were in a great place it just wasn’t strong enough to overcome such a drastic change. What was nice in this whole situation was the way the team rallied around him. They each tried to help him in their own ways even though none of them wanted him to go. He clearly belongs with his stitchers family and he even admits as much in the episode. Perhaps it might be time for him and his wife to finally let go of the marriage and go on about their lives individually. A marriage can only self-destruct so many times before it ends up at a point where it might be beyond repair. By the end of the episode, it seems like that might be the case for them as neither character is willing to give up their career for the other.
On the complete opposite to that are Cameron and Kirsten who have just come out of a really rough patch in their own relationship. There were a few moments where it looked like they could be done, but compromises were made and they were able to reconcile. That, however, didn’t prevent Cameron from still being paranoid over his past mistakes that led to the original breakup. He’s now being super cautious and nervous about keeping any secret from Kirsten, ironic given the fact that by the end of the episode Kirsten herself lied to Cameron by keeping him in the dark regarding what she and Linus were doing. They have a strong relationship when they are on good terms, but where they get into trouble is when each keeps secrets from the other. Cameron might have learned his lesson, but Kirsten clearly didn’t and this rebellious act could have massive repercussions for so many reasons including against her relationship with Cameron. However, he did keep secret the fact that the therapist he called was his mom, so perhaps they still both need to work a tiny bit on the whole honesty thing. At least Kirsten took that bit of news well, the secret she just kept from Cameron might not go over as well.
That leads to Linus who has a much bigger Ivy problem than he could have imagined. It’s one thing for her to lie about being in contact with Stinger, but a whole other thing to find out that she created the stitch anomaly that almost killed Kirsten. Linus is a very forgiving guy, but even he can only forgive so much and this might have officially broken past the level of forgiveness. Now, to be fair to Ivy, we as the audience know more than the other characters do. We’ve know about Ivy’s involvement with Stinger and the anomaly for weeks, but the other characters don’t know the predicament she’s in. She doesn’t want to be involved with Stinger, but he won’t leave her alone and now she seemingly made some sort of deal with the NSA to draw him out putting her in an even more precarious position. She’s found herself in the ultimate rock meets hard place situation. No matter what she says at this point none of the others will believe her. She likely just lost the relationships she’s been building with her sister and the man she cared about. Because of Stinger she once again lost everything. Now, she did play her part in this whole mess by telling lies, but she’s not the only character on this show that has issues with telling lies and digging progressively deeper holes for themselves. This major reveal will not only destroy her life but it’s going to cause severe problems for Kirsten and Linus as well. Even though Ivy has screwed up it’s hard to not feel a little bad for her. She didn’t realize her dad was a bad man until it was too late and by that point she was so far involved in everything that the damage was already done.
Unfortunately for Kirsten, going behind Cameron’s back could cause her some new relationship issues, but at least she has fixed her friendship with Camille as has Linus. They both might have to lean on her regarding this, but first, she needs to get her own feet firmly back under her. The Amanda breakup really hurt her, but she’s got really good friends and a reputation for bouncing back from tough situations. She can help Linus through what is likely to be a dramatic and intense breakup with Ivy. Though it needs to be as just friends, they are at their very best when they stay in the friend zone. Linus going to get Camille out to run with him on the beach was a nice moment between two friends and that’s where they need to keep things for now. They both have too many other things to deal with at the moment. For Linus, the fallout from the Ivy reveals is likely going to impact him for a good long while. The same for Kirsten, they were Ivy’s biggest champions and now in their eyes they’ve been dealt a major betrayal.
A ton of things happened in this episode, they packed a ton into this hour, but every big moment is clearly building up to one epic sized season finale. The introduction of Cameron’s mom, Dr. Ellen Goodkin (Catherine Dent) and her covert examination of Kirsten is sure to turn up some things that will further fuel the drama to come. At first appearance, it is easy to see why Cameron has such a contentious relationship with his mom, but she also seems to deeply love her son and just wants the best for him. Any mother that goes through watching their child have open heart surgery and a divorce all in a relatively short time frame is sure to be a bit overprotective of her child. Let’s just hope that her intentions are as pure as they seem. She seems very sincere, so it should be fun to see if Kirsten’s dinner intervention might help mother and son start to rebuild their bond.
Maggie wasn’t in this episode long, but she’s sure to be massively pissed off when she returns. Though, to be fair, she knew Cameron would have access to her office while she was away again and should have taken more efforts to hide the case file on Ivy and Stinger. Since Maggie isn’t usually that sloppy it could be that this is all part of the plan they laid out with Ivy. They will need Ivy to look on the outs with everyone to draw Stinger back in. What better way to do that than to stage these big reveals and actually have everyone angry at her? However, if this wasn’t all part of some bigger plan, then Fisher might be able to join Stephanie in D.C. after all after Maggie fires him.
The next episode is the penultimate one of the season and the ending of this episode certainly sets up some major things to come in the next two episodes. There were the big Ivy reveal and the questions about Kirsten’s brain scans. Then there is the setup for Stinger to make a much-unwanted visit to one or both of his daughters. And there is still the big factor of Kirsten’s mom. They are seemingly at a point where Maggie is going to have to relent and the team is going to have to figure out how to stitch Kirsten into her alive mom’s brain. They have a lot of ground to cover in these next two episodes and it all starts next week.
Don’t miss the penultimate Season Three episode next
Monday, August 7th at 9/8c on Freeform.
Hit the comments with your thoughts about this episode. Are you glad that Fisher is sticking around? Do you think Maggie and Fisher let the news about Ivy and Stinger slip?
