Touch (S2E8) Reunions

4 04 2013

I was not prepared for this episode. I had heard Maria Bello wanted out of the show and was happy how it happens, but I had no idea it would be before the end of the season and it would happen in this way in this episode. I was sobbing. But let’s not jump ahead….

Amelia (Saxon Sharbino) is running through the desert [another dream sequence?].

Jake (David Mazouz) narrates, “Bodies at rest stay at rest, and bodies in motion stay in motion unless acted on by an outside force.”In this case she is stopped by Aster Corps security, and more specifically we see Tony Rigby (Adam Campbell). License plate on one vehicle 6Q49951. Tony tells Amelia she would have to run 1-1/2 days to reach civilization. Security takes her away.

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Amelia is caught trying to escape

Jake continues, “People, like objects, become set in their paths, embedded in a constrained reality. As we travel our path, the possible futures which were once infinite collapse down to one. One outcome. Unchangeable. Inescapable.”

[Sign read The Teller Institute, established in 1997]

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An old Teller Institute testing lab

There’s Kase! [Friend or foe?] Tony wants Kase (John Boyd) to give him data. Kase informs him the place is antiquated. Files fall out in front of Amelia. Amelia opens it and sees a man’s MRI study analysis. Patient #0001. This man, according to the report, has an abnormally enlarged amygdala on both sides of his brain and the volume of the white matter is bigger on the left side than e right. On the negative side, it also contains compromised features. His left inferior gyrus (important for language) is less developed and he has fewer connections to the right fusiform gyrus (which helps process faces). Amelia worries about his ultimate fate. She folds the paper and takes it. Tony tells Kase a new generator is on the way, but he needs results or else he is of “no use” to him [which I interpret as a death threat].

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Patient #1

Kase apparently has a gambling problem [and debt]. Amelia retreats to the beautiful garden in her head. Jake continues: “We’re each on a path and sometimes those paths become inclined, pulled into each others’ orbits and collide.”

[Blue butterfly-I discovered today that my son with autism is using a blue butterfly icon for his log-on for Windows long before this show ever aired. I thought that was cool.]

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Amelia screams to the universe for someone to help her.

Amelia calls out, “Please save me!” and Jake hears her. Outside the hospital [presumably waiting for Lucy], Martin (Kiefer Sutherland) reassures him that everything is going to be okay. But Trevor (Greg Ellis) tells them there is a problem. Phil gave a statement that contradicts him. Someone named Denny Lange had access to Trevor’s database. Martin is ready to disappear but Trevor tells him to go home. A battered Lucy (Maria Bello) walks out of the hospital. Jake writes 0175 in the window of the car.

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Tonight’s number

While driving home, Martin sees a floral van whose phone number was 310-555-0175. Follow that van!

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0715 is on the van

There it is: “Jake, stay in the car.” [This has become an affectionate joke among Twitter fandom, either that or “Jake get out of the car.” It’s Tony Rigby’s house but Calvin is there. Calvin tells them Tony murdered his mother and took Amelia. Calvin has a directory to all the high-level facilities that Aster Corps has at his place. [Red throw blanket over the couch; red pamphlet on table next to laptop.]

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Red, red and more red.

In his red jacket, Jake wanders in the loft to an experiment area. Martin freaks when he sees him with the thing on his head. Calvin said he could hurt him shutting it down. Calvin sees Wernicke and Broca waves are beginning to oscillate. He’s getting ready to speak.

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Jake is plugged into The Matrix.

Jake turns up in Amelia’s safe place in her head. Jake says to Amelia, “I found you.” Jake hears Lucy in the background to tell Amelia she loves her, which he repeats to Amelia. Tell her that we’re coming for her.” Lucy asks him to find out any details about where they are. Amelia tells him.

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Jake meets Amelia in The Matrix.

He writes 1997 1188. Martin gets it. 1188 belonged to Teller. Calvin says may have given him the information he needed to help his brother.

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Important numbers!

Calvin goes to William (David Hoflin). A 17-year-old named Evie (Katherine McNamara) pops in to say hello and offer her services. She wants to be a neurosurgeon one day. Suddenly, William is back to himself, talking and moving around. William wants to know what happened.

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William recovers….sort of

Lucy, Martin and Jake go to Amelia. There was some time for Martin and Lucy to talk about Lucy’s old life, like her profession. The car breaks down. They stop a truck and for $200 he will deliver them to the place they need to go (in the middle of nowhere). This man is Jerry Woods (John Lacy),the estranged father of Evie, the young lady with Calvin. As they survey the area, Jake lets out a primal scream to alert the guards. Martin realizes that was his plan after all. Martin runs into the path of the security guards asking them for their help. Martin may have them convinced and they take him away.

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Even bad guys pick up guys who claim they have car problems

However, he winds up in a cell at the facility. Passing by, Kase hears Martin’s pleas to the guard. Martin and Kase come face to face. Kase was hired by Calvin’s mother to care for Amelia more so than being Calvin’s assistant. Kase said they will kill him if he tells Martin where Amelia is. Martin forcefully persuades Kase to show him.

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You WILL take me to Amelia.

Calvin and William speak about times in the past. William recalls the details of the accident. There were some very emotional scenes where Calvin blamed himself for the accident and William knew he was moving mountains to save him. [It made Calvin not so much of a bad guy.]

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Calvin and William speak to one another.

Jake and Lucy break into the area with vehicles. Lucy pulls out key 6908 and Jake takes out the other keys and drops them into a grate. Jake grabs the electronic key, puts it on the windshield and runs to a door.

The guard knows Martin is gone. Tony Rigby is there. Martin meets Amelia. She skips the pleasantries and tells them they have to leave. Tony knows she is gone from her room.

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No time for pleasantries!

Amelia says that they need to block out the cameras and Martin follows. Kase moved away from them. Amelia tells Martin they will overload the system. Tony recognizes Martin Bishop (aka Martin Bohm) when the cameras catch him before the lights go out.

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They are discovered!

Amelia knows exactly where Jake and her mom are. A guard pops into the garage. Martin sees the key Jake left for them. When the second guard comes in and they notice the keys are gone, Martin and Amelia leave. License plate on the Jeep is 6IRA337.

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Martin and Amelia arrive.

Amelia tells Martin to stop at a particular place. Lucy pops out of a bush. A happy reunion commences. All four of them get into the Jeep and drive away.

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A mother and child reunion.

An anonymous woman (Mrs. Farrington, actress Frances Fisher from Eureka) tells Tony she is sending “Tanner” (D.B. Sweeney) which is upsetting to Tony.

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Mrs. Farrington–Hey she was on Eureka!

Martin wants Lucy and Amelia to disappear. Lucy agrees. Martin cares a lot for Lucy and they have an emotional good-bye and share a more-than-friends kiss.

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Martin cares deeply for this woman

Jake gives Amelia her red car from the center in New York (season 1 reference). Amelia gives Jake something to give to Martin.

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Season 1 reference– nice callback.

Jake says good-bye to Lucy and takes her hand.

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Jake loves Lucy.

Evie wakes Calvin. William has regressed. A distraught Calvin yells at her and tells her to leave. Evie cries on the bench outside, but her father arrives at the perfect time.

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Reunion for Evie and Jerry

Jake narrates: “We each have a path. Some are forced apart, but flow back together, their synchronicity inescapable. Some paths touch only briefly and glance off in different directions, forever changed by the meeting. Some loop back again and again across time and space, always finding each other.

Lucy drives off with Amelia into the sunset. But there is blackness on the horizon.

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Danger Will Robinson.

[I have been aware that Maria Bello wanted ‘out’ of the show, but I always assumed it was at the end of the season. I also know she was pleased how her storyline ended. All at once I am worried this is the end of Amelia and Lucy. But my mind is screaming, “This can’t be now! This can’t be it!” At the same time I’m trying to think, “How were they found? Did Lucy’s car get GPS’d? Did they inject a tracking device on Amelia the second time she was taken?” Logic would dictate since Martin is driving one of their cars, he would be the one they locate first.]

Jake continues: “Once we’re on our path there are limited chances to deviate, small moments when other forces come into play and knocks you off your trajectory. Mrs. Farrington tells Tanner she only wants Amelia–her mother is a liability. [Oh shit! It is going to end here for Lucy but how? Does Amelia get away or is she recaptured?]

Amelia has already calculated all possible outcomes. I presume she knows in all outcomes her mother is going to die and there is only one outcome where she escapes but her mother does not [at this point I start sobbing…a mother would die for her child].

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Lucy understands her fate.

 

Amelia starts running.  Jake: “What could be powerful enough to change your path, change your future? An act of nature, an act of love.” Lucy gets out of the truck and confronts Aster Corps, Tony Rigby. As Amelia runs, she hears a gunshot (Tony Rigby and the gunman, Cooper [Gonzalo Menendez).

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Lucy is about to die for her child.

Jake: “Once this deviation happens, you find yourself on a new path, uncharted, unknown, stretching out ahead of you.”

[Dead silence from me–I never expected that at all!]





Touch (S1E7) Noosphere Rising

4 02 2013

(Recap of a season 1 episode in preparation for Season 2 of “Touch” beginning Friday, February 8, 2013)

One has to ask the question, “What is a noosphere?” Loosely defined, it is collective consciousness. Indeed, Jake narrates at the beginning that prayer is a collective request sent up in unison of shared hope. Numbers are a constant until they are not.

Clea (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) reviews the footage of Professor Teller’s (Danny Glover) visit. There is missing time outside of room 6 until he brings Jake (David Mazouz) the car back. Martin (Kiefer Sutherland) asks Jake if Teller gave him anything, and while playing cards, the visitor’s badge and key falls out of the deck with 1188 inscribed. It’s a dead-man’s hand, a poker thing (the show took liberties of making it any suit, but normally it is a two-paired poker hand that consists of black aces and eights along with a “hole” card; this was the hand reportedly held by Wild Bill Hickok before he was shot.

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The B-plot story is about Natalie’s (Amelia Rose Blaire) video blog. Daryl, her boyfriend, broke up with her, but she decided to go to Europe anyway (flight 225). While in Paris, she was ready to go to another country when she finds a red flash drive. She is also wearing red earrings and red shoes. Being an Italian history major, she was able to translate the message on the flash drive to Celeste from Paolo (Alberto Frezza). All he knows is that she is going to be in New York City on March 28 for her birthday and he sends a video message to meet at Cafe Kismet at 7 p.m. This is Natalie’s blog post #1188. This becomes a campaign to find Celeste.

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Maggie, Teller’s daughter (Deidrie Henry), and Martin officially meet. She remembers him from the hospital and the funeral. Maggie and Martin talk about Jake, her father’s theories, and that Maggie was his assistant. She was worried about Teller and followed me and he went to a basement on Third and Allan.

Abigail Kelsey (Catherine Dent) goes to visit Jake and gives him her company’s latest computer tablet not yet released to the public. I instantly do not like her.

At the basement, Martin tries the key but it does not work. However, he is told that if he wants “in” it will be $1000. Martin returns with it which buys him into a poker game and he meets Stacey (Angela Gots), the dealer.

Meanwhile in Australia, a father leaves 1188 hectares of Groton Valley Station to his son, Devon Michael Jones (Sean McGowan). But he has to ride his horse, Zeus, first. Devon is a math professor In New Jersey (with Logan, see below). Eventually Zeus lets him ride him once Devon has broken down about his feelings about his father. He gives the ranch to Zeke (Robert Pike Daniel), his father’s friend.

Natalie is shocked at the 20,521 video responses. Among those are the Happy Pop Twins (remember them? Our Japanese travelers, Miyoko (May Miata) and Izumi (Satomi Okuno) from earlier episodes). And through them, Natalie has found a new band to like, “The Morticians.” Natalie suggests that they should all meet there for Paolo in case Celeste does not show to support him. Everything should wear the color red. It’s the “I Believe in Love” Team.

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Clea shows Jake how he can use the icons on the device to speak. Instead, he goes to a solitaire game (where we see 2 aces and 2 eights).

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Martin plays poker. Stacey asks him if he is “another math guy.” Martin has aces and eights but loses. When cashing out an opposing player, on the $200 mark, there is a $20 that says Logan loves Stacey; Martin follows her outside. Professor Logan Coteweiler (Eyal Podell) is a math professor. He won $200,000 in week 6 of his experiment. The house thinks she was in on it so she has to pay it off.

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Back at Stanford House, Abigail informs Clea and Martin that she has filed to be Jake’s legal guardian. Jake is looking at an article written by Dr. Logan Coteweiler on 1188. Abigail is trying to buy her way inside by offering tablets to all the children with special needs at the school. She informs Clea she has come back “to protect him.”

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Martin finds Logan on the floor. After calling 9/11, he finds his cell and calls this “Devon” person. Devon informs Martin that Logan is diabetic and his insulin is in the refrigerator. He starts waking up.

Celeste has been found “sort of.” A picture of her was located on a cell phone circling the globe (see episode 1).

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Logan loves Stacey. He was using Teller’s Amelia sequence, which he calls it like the mind of God, which turns Schrödinger equation, which is a partial differential equation that express how the quantum state of some physical systems change with time. The Amelia sequence ties the past and the present and the future together. Martin tells him what happened to Stacey. In order for Martin to find where the key fits, Logan tells Martin he has to buy into a high-stakes poker game to win the money to get Stacey out of trouble. Logan tells Martin to follow his cues, but Martin listens to his own and wins on aces and eights.

Logan gives the money back to Stacey at Cafe Kismet. Martin receives change of a $20 and it is the bill that says Logan loves Stacey on it. She is not ready to talk to him about that. He tells Martin that the red door will lead him to Teller’s research.

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Natalie is also outside Cafe Kismet where Martin walks across her video screen. Natalie is overwhelmed by the response and the people who came. Paolo is there, but he is not looking any longer for Celeste; he is there for Natalie. GOOSEBUMPS! I’m such a sucker for love.

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Stacey eventually meets with Logan at Cafe Kismet. Celeste found her true love. Natalie and Paolo spend time together. Clea sees the picture of Amelia on the missing video footage.

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And Martin finds the door that the 1188 key opens. He adds to the sequence, but FLICK FLUB, he forgets to put a “6” after the 975 and before the 1188.

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