Date of airing: December 13, 2006 (ABC)
Nielsen ratings information: 3.90 million viewers, 2.7/4 in Households, 1.4/4 with Adults 18-49
written by: Charles Murray
directed by: Rob Bowman
Look how unimportant the fact has become that Brett Hopper was being targeted by the police for the murder of an Assistant District Attorney. Two homicide detectives found the murder weapon at Hopper's place, which, for some reason, Hopper does not bother with any longer, so there should have been a city-wide manhunt going on, with Hopper not being safe anywhere. And yet that part of the narrative has disappeared completely, and is barely being mentioned in the episode themselves. Granted, it was mentioned a couple of times during this hour that Hopper was targeted by the police (that is why the church lady wanted him gone), but it is not like the police are constantly chasing the man. Hopper has all the time in the world to roam around the city and investigate the conspiracy, without ever having to face the police who may be around the corner to arrest him, because a random citizen saw the man.
However, I know that the story is still part of the narrative, or the writers would not have chosen to include a scene that had Rita being interrogated by the two homicide detectives whose names I either do not know or cannot remember. But they are not looking for Hopper with the help of the media and the citizens of Los Angeles. Yes, that would make it a little difficult for Hopper to roam around Los Angeles and try to solve the case, but still, there is not anything about him being a murder suspect these days, because he can still walk around town like a picture with his beautiful face is not even out there.
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| Hopper is about to ask Jesus for some help. |
And look how predictable the show has become when Jennifer was revealed to be involved in the conspiracy somehow, going against Chad with a gun and killing him. Okay, I was not expecting that exact scene, but now that Jennifer is involved, I know exactly where the big narrative is heading and how much the 1991 murder has been ruining the Hopper family for all these years. But when Jennifer's face was revealed the second time she killed Chad, I was not impressed, and I was actually a bit annoyed. Then again, I already figured that Hopper’s (and Jennifer’s) father is somehow involved in the conspiracy (whether or not he is dead), so at least one of his kids will be as well. And now that the writers went this far, there is not much left for Hopper's father to reveal himself to be behind all of this (that has to mean he must still be alive, right?). Because this episode annoyingly managed to depict yet another shadow guy, it is almost certain that the shadow guy is in fact Hopper and Jennifer's daddy, but the shadow looked extremely white and I cannot believe for a second that a black man is behind such a large and complicated conspiracy. Heck, even in TWENTY-FOUR, the most conspiracy-laden show of conspiracy-laden shows, it was always the white guy who became the final villain (except for the anti-Muslim bashing in seasons four and six).
Generally speaking, the episode was okay. I did not care for most of the twists, but I found myself interested in Hopper and Damien working together for half of the episode. It helped establish (and made me remember) that the Disciples are somewhat involved in this conspiracy, even though the writers never cared to establish who the Disciples are and how dangerous they are. It has created the possibility that Damien might not be such a bad guy after all and could serve as Hopper's right-hand man during the closing hours of the conspiracy. When Hopper came in with his gun drawn to the birthday party, Damien had all the reason in the world to just pop the cop right then and there, but the two were good partners for a little while. And Damien even listened to Hopper’s message at the end, gleefully taking the opportunity to off those two Nazi-looking dudes in the van. I would almost hope that Damien became a main character in this episode, and that Hopper will continue to help him (and vice versa), so that Damien’s day changes as well (like Eddie’s did), and he will be more of a partner for Hopper (because the writers could not do much with Andrea at this point).
I did like how the time loop was handled this time around. Hopper
made
a mistake in approaching Detweiler, and the scene immediately cut to
the redo, putting on a different spin on Hopper's actions. That part
showed more
of a GROUNDHOG DAY influence than the entirety of the series so far,
meaning this episode might have shown the reason why the writers wanted a
time loop show in the first place. Why not create these kinds of scenes
when the premise is screaming for it? Why not go through
multiple iterations of the day in a single episodes, instead of just
three or maybe four? Hopper could experience multiple weeks in a single
episode, and maybe that would add to the fun factor of the show.
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| Executions are better if they happen impromptu. |
Also, with Hopper
standing in the middle of a church, there was a glimpse of him wondering
if he was actually chosen by God herself for this kind of day, if the events of the day might be events directed by the
Almighty in the sky and if there are higher powers in the universe
that want Hopper to survive this day, with all of his family and
friends, while all the bad guys are sent straight to hell. Yes, the series premise is very sci-fi (even if the writers never did anything with it), but this episode could have directed the show towards more of an esoteric twist when it comes to the time loop. If I think about it a bit, I would not mind that development, especially since it would take away from the sci-fi premise that the writers refused to touch.
