Hold on to your seats: another week of Believe when (almost) NOTHING HAPPENS! Woo-hoo!
Okay, we’ll admit this much: at least they begin this episode with Tate asking Winter, “why didn’t you tell me [I was Bo’s Dad] earlier?” Good for them: we’ve been wondering the same thing for weeks. But the encouraging shift towards logic rapidly dissolves: Winter’s answer, accepted without anything but snarling is, “We weren’t sure if you’d be good for her or bad for her.” What? Why would keeping it a secret make that any clearer? And…um…oh, never mind. Bo gets shot with a tranquilizer dart before the titles, shot by a guy Channing knows, Zepeda, one of Skouras’ men who tracked them down…how, exactly? Ohh, silly logic, get back in your box! Anyway, the capture Zepeda and split with him…
Flashback to Channing’s origin as head of security at Skouras’ company. Winter starts pickin’ at her from their first meeting, laying out his anti-Skouras agenda to a total stranger who has no reason not to tell Skouras this guy’s a traitor in the making. Anyway, that’s in the past (and really, who cares?). Now Winter and Co. are going to a farmhouse that just happens to be nearby (remember our secret name for this show: It Just Happens.) Pretty Nurse Sarah greets them, and she and Bo recognize each other; bitter husband Karl With the Limp knows them as well and hates them all. But is Bo sick or tranquilized? Tate beats up Zepeda to get answers and, of course, doesn’t (because if you haven’t noticed, Tate is really bad at all his jobs: fugitive, protector, or thug). Bo, who has this unknown and ultra-convenient drug in her system and a soooopoer-dangerous fever or more than ninety-nine degrees! is forced into an out-of-body experience. And in one of the more confusing turns, her OBE is also a flashback, where we see her first meeting with Sarah (they brought Bo here after breaking her out of Skouras lab-prison; that’s how they know each other.) Bo sees some CGI coming out of the chimney annnnnd…Commercial!
The show seems eerily depopulated this week. No Skouras so far, no FBI, no Task Force – just the standard Team Bo, now whittled down to three, and this new couple, along with Zep. That’s pretty much it. Hm…
Back to the farm. One more logical move dismissed by Winter. Take this sick girl to the hospital? No way. Because “she is beyond their science,” even though there’s been no indication that her physiology is any different than anyone else’s. Still: never mind! No hospitals! Bah!
Sarah the Nurse is forced to give a long, painful monologue of clichés to the comatose Bo. Bo has some more OBEs and chimney dreams and we notice: WOW, there’s a lot of talking and driving in this episode. Milton calls Zoe, Skouras’ traitorous sidekick. Annnnd… COMERRCIAL! (That was fast)
Maybe this is what happens when a major talent like Alfonso Cuaron pitches a show to a hungry and slightly desperate network (e.g., all networks in 2014). “Remarkable girl … on the run … her father is a con … the megacorp/government wants her back … Firestarter without having to pay Stephen King.” Then, against all odds, they say ‘We’ll take it! Now here’s 12 or 15 or 22 hours to fill.” And … oh, shit, you know, we really haven’t thought this through…
Milton tells Zoe that he believes Bo is dying. Based on that horrible temperature of 99, apparently. Back at the farm, Channing and Karl talk. Karl’s not real happy with being put “back in danger” ‘cause obviously the poor guy’s pronounced limp is because of their first encounter with Team Bo. Karl goes to confront Zepeda, who says it wasn’t him who attacked them “four months ago” (This has all happened in four months? This timelineis a mess) and shot him in the side, but he knows who is. Dum dum DUM!
Cut to far-ish from the farm, where Tate and Milton rendezvous with Zoe at – OMG, a train station! What is it with these people and public transit? While we wait, we have to hear the “Bo can save the world single-handedly” nonsense again. Milton helps Zoe shake her tail, so to speak, and they say hello. Annnd…COMMERICAL.
Check us here: aren’t there a LOT of commercials this week? Or is it just that so little is happening between the commercials that we notice them more? We’re at the bottom of the hour and so far two things have happened: (1) Bo’s been tranquilized, which may or may not be why she’s sick, and (b) they’ve met with a doctor. *yawn*
So as we come back, more TALK about how she might not be sick at all, but – not having even examined her yet – the doc says she’s probably doing it to herself. Guessing, of course, but…yeah. So here’s a magic potion to make the princess wake from her deathly sleep. (Mind you, it could be anaphylactic shock, the bubonic plague, or the flu, but Zoe is sure the magic potion will work!)
Back at the farm house: turns out it was Channing, before her conversion to the Good Guys, who attacked Sarah, shot Karl, and took Bo. But “she’s a different person now.” And she was converted by Bo. And we get a new Bo catch phrase: “Sorry isn’t for tomorrow.” Vague, meaningless, but profound-sounding? You bet!
And oops, the magic potion doesn’t work, but Winter still refuses to even think about a hospital or taking her to Orchestra. Tate gets all threaten-y with Zepeda, then releases him so he can defy Winter and take Bo to Orchestra. Channing and Tate fight. More embarrassing monologues over Bo’s comatose body, this time with Winter. Zepeda goes for Bo, and Karl points his bad-ass shotgun at him, which of course will shred both Bo and Zepeda if he fires. Bip-bap, round and round, Sarah hits Zep gets the gun and threatens to kill Bo – Bo? The only one who matters? Because…that’s why he’s here ? With order not to hurt her? To .. ah…logic! Stop it! Tate gets between Zap and Bo and…Commercial!
Ahh, it was all just a bluff. Confronted by Tate’s chest, Zap just backs out of the room without firing another shot, and of course no one follows him. Instead they all stand around while Tate embraces the little girl and somehow enters her OBE, where she guesses he’s her Dad (finally!). So…no good drama there. But somehow that makes her wake up. Then they just all leave, with no reconciliation of the “Channing shot me!” story. They just wave bye-bye – bye bye! – and go off to some other shadowy safe house, where Channing admits to Winter that he was right, it was a good idea to keep the Daddy news from Bo until this point – to “pick the right moment.” Winter says, “It wasn’t me, it was Bo. She picked the moment.”
Now just…wait a minute. It was a GOOD thing they kept this news from Bo? It was GOOD that this psychic cognitive dissonance made her deathly ill, nearly killed her, endangered two perfectly innocent people, nearly got Channing and/or Bo and/or All of them killed? And she PLANNED it that way? And wasn’t this all induced by a tainted tranq that Zepeda shot into her during an ambush she had no idea was coming? Or was it? So … what the hell are you saying?
Enough. There wasn’t even a “B” story to resolve this week, they stole any real authentic scene between Bo and Tate from us by having her guess the big secret of paternity, Tate and Channing brush off their fight and mutual betrayal – hey, shit happens – and again: no Skouras, no FBI, no Task Force, no nothing. Yes, that sinking sensation you’re feeling really is from circling the airport. Over…and over…and over…
