Date of airing: October 30, 1999 (CBS)
Nielsen ratings information: 9.84 million viewers, 6.2/12 in Households, 2.8/10 with Adults 18-49
written by: Josh Appelbaum, André Nemec
directed by: Kevin Dowling
This was a weird episode, and one that established Patrick as a character you might no want to focus on at all, or at least not again when he continued the way he has been in this episode: an annoying kid in the body of a 30-year-old man. He worked quite well in the high school shooting episode ("Teen Angels") when he connected with some of the teenagers because of his youthful attitude, and was otherwise not the comedic relief who needed to look bad in front of the camera to get Gary to react disparagingly, but in this episode, Patrick was a completely different character, making me roll my eyes into the next town. All of a sudden, the guy has turned into something of a kid who could not listen, who would not listen, who could not stay away when being told to stay away, who created trouble simply because he did not stay away (okay, he created trouble during his stint as a substitute teacher as well, but that was a different kind of deal), and who is not asking one single question about why he is being treated the way he is being treated. I have no idea why Patrick would consider Gary as a big-brother figure when that big brother treats him like a little kid.
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| Meet Kyle Chandler, who is definitely shirtless in this scene. |
Not that Patrick is a terrible character – some of what Marissa said about him to Gary was spot-on, and it would make him a great buddy if he happened to be a real person who cares, but the writers twisted Patrick’s persona for this episode, just so he could fit into the narrative and be a nuisance to Gary, and I think that was a mistake. Yes, EARLY EDITION was never a show that cared a lot about character continuity and depth, and every once in a while, stories were created that did not fit with the characters, simply because the show was never much about the characters in the first place (or else, we would have gotten to see a lot more of Erica, or Chuck would not have been the constant "devil" on Gary's shoulders, or Marissa would be more than just Gary's partner and sorta-friend who gets one episode a season for herself). This episode pretty much crashed through the gate and decided it would not give a damn about who Patrick was before this episode, and who he might be after. The writers thought that Gary needed a teen-like sidekick he could treat unfairly during this hour, but that would be mean to actual kids, so the writers gave him Patrick.
And suddenly I wished this really had been his final episode, and that he was on his way to Oregon where he would become his own person. I probably would have loved for the show to go back to the "two main characters only" premise from the third season premiere (in which Gary and Marissa were doing things together, but separately), even if Patrick happened to be a major character back then as well, but the thought of Gary and Marissa doing their thing by themselves intrigued me after Chuck left the show at the end of season two.
Also, I did not quite like Gary’s attitude towards Patrick, and how constantly annoyed he was, including saying that he should have fired Patrick long ago for his behavior and the fact that he is almost like from another planet. That does not make Gary a likable character at all, but then again, the guy has been buried under the stress and pressure to prevent terrible headlines for more than three years now, and every time he encounters a person who does not give thanks or does not listen to him, he becomes grumpy. So it is only natural and obvious that Gary would quickly grow annoyed with Patrick the "kid."
I would love to know how the explosion of a moving truck in an alley led to the deaths of 16 rave partygoers though. That sounds like those 16 people heard an explosion, went out there, and suddenly got caught by a fire, which sounds Darwin-like to me, but then again, the explosion simply could have just ruptured part of the house they were in, and voila, chaos and death. At least the writers knew how to constantly create a new bad headline for Gary to prevent, simply because of Patrick’s actions, and I loved that the butterfly effect was mentioned for the first time, albeit in a somewhat weird fashion. I was wondering when a random action to prevent a disaster would lead to an even bigger disaster later, and for Gary to figure out how he indirectly created said disaster in the first place. Sometimes that has been part of the show, but never this majorly. It shows that the writers were interested in playing with the element of the chaos theory, and maybe going into the stories with a little more philosophy about time and preventing the future from happening.
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| Gary and Patrick are on the case! |
Maybe EARLY EDITION would be a different show if it would not only focus on Gary preventing the headline, but instead go into some sort of morale, go into the theme of time travel and the need of preventing deaths, as well as the issue of fate versus faith. After all, the show had two episodes, each of them titled "Fate" and "Faith," so the writers were definitely interested in playing with that idea. If all of these people in peril were destined to be saved by Gary, does it mean the paper is a way to change the destiny of some people? Kind of like the homeless guy Gary was unable to save? Would that not mess up the universe somehow? At this point in the series, it may have been a good idea to upgrade the show and change a little, as the writers were about to repeat the same old stories. Instead of adding younger characters to try and convince younger viewers to tune into the show, which did not work in the previous season, maybe the writers should have amended the premise slightly.
