Date of airing: February 6, 1999 (CBS)
Nielsen ratings information: 9.82 million viewers, 6.5/12 in Households
written by: Alex Taub
directed by: Gary Nelson
The cat was absolutely interested in Gary telling Erica about the paper. Otherwise, the paper would have kept Gary away from Erica for the entire day, or the cat would have continuously interrupted Erica from getting close to Gary, simply by becoming a crazy cat, as they do when you do something they do not like you to do. Heck, it even looked like the cat moved its head left and right, to say "No" to Gary when he asked the cat if it had a problem with him telling Erica about the paper. Everyone was giving their consent here, as Gary was "allowed" to tell Erica the truth, and one could wonder – when looking at the bigger mythological, supernatural picture – if it was destined for Erica to know about the paper, or if Gary was given a "reward" for doing all the things he has been doing. After saving lives and preventing disasters for two and a half years, he was finally granted a romantic relationship with another woman.
But then I think back to the first-season episode "Phantom at the Opera," in which Gary was dating Emma Shaw (wonderfully portrayed by the late Adrienne Shelly), and the episode made it seem like the two were dating for weeks – so how did Gary do his Samaritan things back then, and how did the paper allow Gary to have a girlfriend and the paper at the same time? Were the "Powers That Be" which gave Gary the paper okay with that romance as well? Would they have allowed him to tell Emma about the paper if Gary thought that this relationship was serious enough to warrant telling the truth to her?
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| Fresh out of the sewers, Gary is here for your date. |
But the cat was present when Gary told Erica about the paper, almost allowing all of it to happen. Maybe the cat realized that Gary cannot live on like he has during the past year, steadily getting frustrated with the way he is being treated by the people of Chicago (or Chuck, or his parents, or the cat in general), and he needed something to get some hope again, smell the fruits of his labor, have some fun living, and not having to bury his head into the paper every second of his life because there is nothing else for him to live by. After what Gary has been doing for the past two and a half years, maybe he deserved some happy time here and there. And maybe Erica was the person he deserved to have that happy time with. By the way, this episode also means that Erica is essentially "that person" for Gary, which means she needed to be treated a bit better by the writers, and not just as the same-old love interest she has been for pretty much all of her appearances this season.
I did notice it before, but this episode sort of brought Gary to a peak when it comes to his somewhat erratic behavior while saving lives in Chicago. He has been a little chaotic and random and almost annoyed by it so far this season (and some of the previous season), probably because he has been doing it for so long now and he needs a break. Hence the “stomach pains” in this episode, although the writers explained it away with his feelings for Erica and the fact that his body is punishing him for constantly lying to a romantic love interest. But I did like the notion that Gary slowly turned into an erratic and annoyed person after two and a half years of waking up every morning at 6:30 a.m., a person you cannot even get a "Good morning, how do you do?" out of because he is already dressed and running out of the apartment to save a life. Not to mention that Gary was already thinking about the next lie to come up with, just so he can continue keeping his paper a secret. In a way, this episode could be a change in Gary’s life – he is becoming more approachable as a person, becoming less erratic, and maybe even becoming more lovable, considering that now is the chance to get that girlfriend he was having a crush on for a while, and have some happiness go through his veins.
Meanwhile, the episodic storylines were okay. It was mostly just about keeping Gary on the streets of Chicago, but I liked how the dude who lost his apartment and his job back-to-back turned out to be the Samaritan of the day, going on a potential date right with a former high school acquaintance after, because every once in a while the people who did not have any luck because of Gary’s paper needed to end the day on a happy note. Also, it continues the notion of other people getting the praise Gary should be getting, but Gary does not care. He just wants to save some lives and change the headlines, and he already came to learn that his name on the front page is not a thing the cat very much likes. Plus, Gary did get some "thanks" from the doctor during the beginning of the episode – possibly the first true "thanks" Gary has ever gotten from someone in the past two and a half years.
It also helped that Erica was witnessing the rescue of Rebecca, with Gary not going for fame and appreciation by getting his picture taken by the Sun-Times photojournalist and instead being the "invisible person" behind everyone else, because this is who Gary is after all. Not only did Erica realize that Gary was telling the truth, but she also got to witness that Gary was not doing it for fame and money. She witnessed how Gary just wanted to save that girl and help her live another day. That would probably make for a great boyfriend for her, although the question is now if the two will even have time to have a relationship. He is always out saving lives, she is a single mother with an annoying kid and a bar manager. How is that going to work out for the two?
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| Erica is having a look at tomorrow's newspaper today. |
Patrick getting thrown into the mix was also somewhat of a nice move, especially when he saved the woman from getting hit by the bus without even knowing that he did so. What a freaky coincidence, and what a cool way of mirroring Patrick’s (accidental) way of saving a life versus Gary’s intended ways of preventing deadly disasters. Gary would most likely have not been as friendly to the woman as Patrick was, and the woman would have most likely reacted with a bit fouler in her tone if Gary had talked to her about watching out before crossing the street. And in contrast with Erica, Patrick would probably believe in an instant that Gary receives tomorrow’s paper today, and he would find it extremely cool and encouraging, and maybe even inspiring. Maybe Patrick should be Gary's love interest, so that Gary would not have had it so hard telling the truth to someone.
