What a great episode tonight! We were served with a lot of great Pritchard family moments. We discovered Jimmy’s softer side, trying to make it right with his daughter, and admitting his past fault. Note to forget the poignant flashback with Otto and Mary, and the jawdropping cliffhanger… So what did you think of That Time in the Car ?
Expect spoilers for the episode – so if you haven’t seen the episode yet and don’t want to be spoiled, you should avoid reading the comments on this post until you’ve watched it.
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Now we’re finally getting into juicy emotional territory that Rand Ravich is known for, and I hope tonight’s episode was just the beginning.
I will definitely watch this episode again, and I’ll tweak my reaction accordingly. My affection for the Pritchard family is growing, and my sympathy for Helen is rising with every episode–how is she going to react when she finally learns the truth about Jimmy, and that both her father and brother kept that whopper of a secret from her? It’s no wonder that Helen has not chosen her men well, considering her parents’ marriage, but maybe Wally isn’t so bad, after all. I like that Jimmy took responsibility for hurting Helen when she was growing up–at most, he took a baby step in the right direction, but any show of self-awareness on Jimmy’s part is progress.
Duval’s half-joking response to Jimmy, asking Duval if he’d ever called him an “idiot”: “Yes, but I knew it meant you loved me.” Yeah, there’s still a big mess there to clean up.
I missed Gracie again tonight. One of the things I was most looking forward to in this series was watching Tim in a role as father, and I hope that’s still ahead. At the very least, she should be told the truth about her grandfather. (I really, really hope that wasn’t a secret that the writers were planning to hold for later seasons that probably won’t happen.)
Jimmy also shared surprising wisdom with Mary, suggesting exactly what I was talking about after the last episode, which is Mary must learn to protect Otto less. The flashback scenes were heartbreaking, and it’s easy to understand why Mary felt overly protective, but healthy grief isn’t stagnant, it evolves, and I think Otto took a significant emotional step forward himself tonight.
Saving the baffling Alexa arc for last…wow. First Connor, now Alexa. Mary sure knows how to pick’em. To be fair, Alexa’s motivation seems, at least on the surface, more sympathetic than Connor’s, but what the heck is this about? Otto somehow reversed the aging process in Alexa, who now wants Otto’s notebooks, formulas, etc. so that she can apply the same…operation? genetic modification? voo doo?…on her husband? I’ll listen more closely on the re-watch, but I think I understood Alexa to say she, at least, consented to Otto’s experimentation, for lack of a better word.
Next week’s episode looks explosive, both literally and figuratively.
I *really* loved this episode. Definitely one of my favorite, up there with episode 4. I’m glad that we finally got more Jimmy and Helen, and Jimmy aknowledging he had a daugther too (cause until now Jimmy seemed mostly interested in Duval…)
All the family scenes were wonderful. Jimmy, Duval and Helen. I’m really enjoying the mix of sincere and complicated feelings with humor.
The revelations about Otto and the death of the Goodwin parents were very poignant.
On a side note, even though I do understand that it’s in Otto’s best interest to take him out of his comfort zone, I’m not entirely sure doing it on the one day his parents died is the nicest way…
I do miss Gracie too. I wonder if Helen is not a replacement (Amanda Detmer is only a guest star and we’ve seen her more than Ciara Bravo who is main cast)
Oh boy Alexa! Dropping new bombs at the end of every episode! I’d really like to know exactly what happened. And how Otto can be involved in the experiment without Mary knowing. And yet Alexa is working with them?
On a more superficial note, Tim is gonna kill me before the end of the season if he keeps looking so good…
I never expected the show to turn out so good or thrilling after the first few episodes. The story really gets to me. Somehow the two pair of siblings have some inverted analogies. Duval protecting his sister and used to clean up her mess, Mary protecting her brother. Both with a emotional bothering parental background.
Even though, Robert Kachinsky does absolute nothing to me and Jimmy Pritchard is an obnoxious person who has wasted his complete life, it’s interesting to see him developing some parental feelings and caring about someone else but himself. And this episode spared us extended scenes with his bare chest in the tank. I don’t need those.
Tim is just an awesome actor. No overacting, no deep stares in the camera, just bringing it to the point. I have absolutely no idea why PR for this show is focused mainly on the other actors.
So far, Duval takes care of everyone else, sister, daughter, father…. I hope there will be some good for him in the story.
Ratings didn’t drop further which is good.
And I’m not ranting about hacking into the bluetooth system of another car to stalk your daughter’s boyfriend. 😉
LOL yes, the less we see the tank, the better. For me it’s more because of the nonsense of it. Also I’m glad that they don’t play the “12 hours deadline” too much. They might bring it up in a tense episode toward the end, but at least it’s not an every week plot device.
I do like what Rob is doing with his character, being a grumpy old man. I don’t always approve of Jimmy’s methods but I like that he’s trying to fix things with this children.
Tim is just amazing in this show. He can express so many things while barely moving en eyebrow. But I guess the audience is mainly young and drawn toward Rob and Dilshad.
(Not that you can’t be young and attracted to Tim 😉 )
Those scenes of Jimmy in the water tank…water is a typical conduit for re-birth in science fiction–in the short-lived ABC series Forever, the main character was immortal and could survive a fatal wound provided he was resurrected in water; in Battlestar Gallactica, the Cylons regenerated in a tub of water designed specifically for that purpose. I’m sure there are other examples, and for this series it makes sense that Jimmy would need to regenerate in a controlled environment under the watchful eye of his handlers (or keepers, if you will). But still, those water tank scenes are borderline comical, which I’m sure isn’t the intent. The audience should get the idea by now, so hopefully we’ll see fewer water tank scenes in the remaining episodes.
I simply want more story from Duval’s point of view. I want to know more about him–at this point, we know more about Helen’s past than about Duval’s, and some of what we don’t know is very basic stuff, such as, what happened to Gracie’s mother. And Duval and Helen’s mother, for that matter.
We have five episodes left. There is no way to put a positive spin on the ratings, and Fox is simply letting the series quietly conclude its run on Friday nights. The network is no longer promoting it, and the entertainment media isn’t paying attention at all. Considering the multiple last-minute title-changes, and the quick move to Fridays after only two episodes, I question whether Second Chance ever really had a chance.
Yes, I wish they’d at least clarify what happened to Duval’s wife. Maybe it’ll come up when Gracie will find out about Jimmy ?