Ooooh, The Plot Is Thickening Now!
Oh, good, I should have plenty of time to post this before LJ goes bye-bye for their scheduled maintenance thingy.
The Pretender 1x18, "Unhappy Landings":
Because it has to be said first: Oh, Sydney. Oh, frightened, brave, angry, ready-to-do-violence, desperate-at-the-end-of-his-rope Sydney. I want to see him unleash that fury, I really do, to tear down the Centre from the inside and wreak fitting, Jarod-esque revenge on Raines and anybody else who deserves it. But at this point, I'm just nervously hoping that he'll survive and manage to hold on to whatever might remain of his self-respect.
Honestly, I was quite literally on the edge of my seat at the end of this. On the edge of my seat and with the hairs on the back of my neck standing up, because, damn, but Raines is fucking creepy. And, man, I don't know exactly what's going on, but, as Broots says, whatever it is is really, really not good. *bites nails*
As well as nervous-making, much of this episode was rather wrenching, in some fairly understated ways. There's a terribly poignant "what-if" sort of feeling in Miss Parker's visit to the home of the rescued girl. To know that at least one child very similar to Jarod did have a normal, healthy life (until that was taken away from her, too), to hear about Catherine Parker's plans to escape to Europe with her child... It really does evoke this strong, sad sense of unrealized might-have-beens.
And, still in the realm of the wrenching, there is Jarod. I found his conversation with the fugitive guy about how life on the run is lonely and you can't keep on like that forever to be interesting, because I have begun to wonder whether Jarod's starting to tire of it himself. Being out and about in the world may be wonderful for him, but even now, he's still isolated. He's far from the only people he has ever had any sort of bond with, and his other relationships and interactions are generally temporary, shallow, and ultimately based on false pretenses. The look on his face as he watches the husband and wife being reunited is really rather heart-rending, because I see in it not so much satisfaction at having accomplished that for someone else, but an increasingly painful realization that it's not just his relationship with his parents that he's missing, but also any chance of having what these people have. All of which, of course, is brought into even sharper relief by the flashback scenes, in which we see him desperately longing for even a single friend.
I kind of love those scenes, by the way, in large part because they give a sense not of Jarod the Baby Pretender, but of Jarod the kid. I had wondered whether he ever simply refused to co-operate when he felt too deprived, and I'm delighted to know that not only did he do so, but it worked, and Sydney found a way to get him what he asked for. Hell, he was probably glad to be able to say, "Nope, sorry, it's required for the success of the experiment." *hugs Sydney hard*
Like Jarod, I too wonder what happened to Kyle. Somehow, I doubt it was anything good.
Right, who else am I forgetting? Oh! Broots! Broots is... really kind of a nice guy, isn't he? Broots, Broots, what are you doing with these people? You do not belong here, dude!
The Pretender 1x18, "Unhappy Landings":
Because it has to be said first: Oh, Sydney. Oh, frightened, brave, angry, ready-to-do-violence, desperate-at-the-end-of-his-rope Sydney. I want to see him unleash that fury, I really do, to tear down the Centre from the inside and wreak fitting, Jarod-esque revenge on Raines and anybody else who deserves it. But at this point, I'm just nervously hoping that he'll survive and manage to hold on to whatever might remain of his self-respect.
Honestly, I was quite literally on the edge of my seat at the end of this. On the edge of my seat and with the hairs on the back of my neck standing up, because, damn, but Raines is fucking creepy. And, man, I don't know exactly what's going on, but, as Broots says, whatever it is is really, really not good. *bites nails*
As well as nervous-making, much of this episode was rather wrenching, in some fairly understated ways. There's a terribly poignant "what-if" sort of feeling in Miss Parker's visit to the home of the rescued girl. To know that at least one child very similar to Jarod did have a normal, healthy life (until that was taken away from her, too), to hear about Catherine Parker's plans to escape to Europe with her child... It really does evoke this strong, sad sense of unrealized might-have-beens.
And, still in the realm of the wrenching, there is Jarod. I found his conversation with the fugitive guy about how life on the run is lonely and you can't keep on like that forever to be interesting, because I have begun to wonder whether Jarod's starting to tire of it himself. Being out and about in the world may be wonderful for him, but even now, he's still isolated. He's far from the only people he has ever had any sort of bond with, and his other relationships and interactions are generally temporary, shallow, and ultimately based on false pretenses. The look on his face as he watches the husband and wife being reunited is really rather heart-rending, because I see in it not so much satisfaction at having accomplished that for someone else, but an increasingly painful realization that it's not just his relationship with his parents that he's missing, but also any chance of having what these people have. All of which, of course, is brought into even sharper relief by the flashback scenes, in which we see him desperately longing for even a single friend.
I kind of love those scenes, by the way, in large part because they give a sense not of Jarod the Baby Pretender, but of Jarod the kid. I had wondered whether he ever simply refused to co-operate when he felt too deprived, and I'm delighted to know that not only did he do so, but it worked, and Sydney found a way to get him what he asked for. Hell, he was probably glad to be able to say, "Nope, sorry, it's required for the success of the experiment." *hugs Sydney hard*
Like Jarod, I too wonder what happened to Kyle. Somehow, I doubt it was anything good.
Right, who else am I forgetting? Oh! Broots! Broots is... really kind of a nice guy, isn't he? Broots, Broots, what are you doing with these people? You do not belong here, dude!