Hello again! I've cut my response time on these review in half, and only had two episodes to catch up. With this trend, tonight's episode should get a review in a much more timely fashion. Let's all pray for the trend to continue! But, onward these to episodes before the penultimate episode airs tonight!
Promotion
Our 5th episode has us following Tess, Burton, and Boerg on their search for Lainie. Led by images of a farmhouse by wind turbines near Amsterdam that were given to them in Lainie's dream world, they discover the answer to the clues isn't as specifically helpful as they would think. On the road trip, Boerg spots an an energy billboard depicting a farmhouse and wind turbines, and right next to the billboard is a road sign for Amsterdam. Boerg uses some satellite images to figure out what could possibly be nearby that was worth heading out there for and finds a nearby building. After a close call with a tour bus, they arrive at location that was clearly used for some strange research, and are greeted by a man with a shotgun. Burton quickly gains the upper hand and steals the shotgun, then questions the man until he reveals that the people he watches the building for just left with a woman. On a tour bus! They catch up with the bus and, thankfully, are able to rescue Lainie and bring her back to the safehouse and wait for her to wake up.More intriguing this episode is the investigation Taka and Alex undertake. Looking into the man in the underwear who shot himself in front of them, they discover that he was actually a journalist who was working on a pretty big story on the councilman running for mayor. Searching the journalists home leads them to a seemingly empty storage unit with a hidden SD card. On the card, they discover a recorded interview confirming that the councilman is involved in a bit of human trafficking, but that the real people to worry about are the people behind him. Namely, Taylor Bennett, the woman who has been using Woody's "services" to help get the councilman elected.
The most intriguing plot point of the episode is finally getting to know our Shadowman, who is really just a normal guy, who happens to have the ability to royally screw with people's dreams and actions. After learning that he is apparently given targets by an unseen person/people, we learn that he used to be normal guy with a normal job, but he was unceremoniously fired with a letter and was ticked off at his boss for a while. He ended up in a shelter, and accidentally hopped into the dream of a man from the shelter who talked way too much. He slowly discovered he was able to affect the environment, and eventually made the man bite his own tongue off in his sleep. At the end of the episode, we see the Shadowman torturing Sam in his dreams in prison, and we learn that Sam is actually the Shadowman's old boss, and he's been getting his sweet, sweet revenge.
Mothers, Fathers, Daughters, Sons
After finding Alex sleeping in a holding cell for fear that the Shadowman will make her do something to her girlfriend while she sleeps, Taka wakes her up and they start discussing their investigation, with Alex pointing out that the one thing they really need to make anything stick is a witness. Taka realizes how true this is and remembers that he already has one: Lainie. Once she wakes up, of course. Tess enters her dream to try and help her wake up, but Lainie isn't terribly trusting. I can't really blame her for that, she's been through some stuff here. Taka shows up to the safe-house with Alex, which certainly doesn't please Tess. Just as they resolve the dispute about how involved Alex should be in the situation, Lainie wakes up. She doesn't really remember much about when she was taken, or the time she was gone, but they are able to discover that she's been kidnapped for 6 weeks. Tess and Alex work on trying to get Lainie to trust them, but Lainie wants to Tess to share her story first to build the trust. In this moment Tess realizes what happened to her is exactly what has happened to Lainie. She runs out to buy a pregnancy test to confirm, and sure enough Lainie is pregnant. An interesting development.
While Tess and Alex spent their time with Lainie, Burton and Taka went to talk with Hull about the doctor on the journalist's interview as the doctor used to work for Hull. Hull predictably isn't very helpful at all, and they head out with not much to go on. On the way back, Boerg calls them from a burner phone to warn them that Taylor Bennett came to visit him, and that she may be a tad suspicious. Uh oh. The following day, Taka is called to a crime scene where we discover that Hull is dead, and they want to know why he ended up dead the day after Taka talked to him. More uh oh.
Woody, meanwhile, has not been handling his feelings about ruining the mayor very well. Like he spent the night sleeping in a booth at a bar. It's not going well. Taylor Bennett later talks to him about how successful their job went, and assigns him another task of taking down a former intern for Councilman Whitaker getting ready to accuse him of sexual harassment. Woody has other plans, though, that probably aren't going to end well for him. He enters Whitaker's dream of winning a presidential election and brings him to a room full of women ready to sleep with him. He removes all of his clothing in preparation, but, plot twist, he's actually on a crowded sidewalk in the real world and people are taking pictures. Oh, Woody!
This episode we were also lucky enough to learn some more about the Shadowman! Turns out he has a daughter who is trying to get into a good college with a good scholarship. When getting his next target from his mysterious benefactors, he asks if there is anything they can do to help get his daughter her scholarship, and they agree to help as long as he completes his next assignment. He does (it was Hull), and while Taka is flabbergasted at his implied accusation, the Shadowman gets a call from his daughter telling him she got a full ride scholarship. These are some pretty influential people.
Verdict
Season 2 continues to be an exciting one. I really enjoy how the show has reinvented itself this outing, and it's certainly for the better in my opinion. I loved Woody's decision to sabotage Whitaker, and I'm really hoping he'll go on to end up helping our Dreamers, since Taylor is certainly involved in it. He could do a lot of good with his abilities if he tries. I've also really enjoyed getting to know the Shadowman. I'm really glad it's actually a human being and not some mythical creature, because I was worried they were going to head in that direction, which to would have not really fit the show. I can't wait to keep learning more about him!
What did you think of these two episodes? How do you feel about the Shadowman's life? Do you think Woody will end up joining our team? Sound off in the comments below!
