Date of airing: December 6, 2006 (ABC)
Nielsen ratings information: 4.46 million viewers, 3.2/5 in Households, 1.7/4 with Adults 18-49, 1.9/5 with Adults 25-54
written by: David Graziano
directed by: Dwight Little
Damn, even a television show about a character stuck in a time loop has a hostage episode. I felt quite
reminded of THE NEGOTIATOR while watching this hour, and I am almost
sure this was not a coincidence – a cop is framed for murder, and while looking for evidence to prove his innocence, he goes to an office and takes a hostage. But it does not stop there because the cop is still trying to find evidence in the middle of the hostage situation. Although the negotiator in this episode
did not have much to talk about with Brett, it still felt like a bit of
an homage to F. Gary Gray's 1998 thriller starring villain Kevin Spacey and our all-time hero Samuel L. Jackson, especially from the hostage taker’s point of view. This episode has
sort of awoken my interest in rewatching FOX's short-lived action show STANDOFF again, just to see if the on-screen chemistry between Ron Livingston and Rosemarie DeWitt was truly real enough for the two to get married off-screen. Actually, I
just reminded myself that the show really existed, even though I
watched it for the first and only time about almost 15 years ago. The things you suddenly remember when you sit in front of a screen and watch random stuff...
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| Let's figure out how to quickly end this hostage crisis. |
This was a solid episode, even though it was also a dumb episode. There was some thrill and drama in this hour, and I was happy to see that the writers decided to give Chad some screentime and make it look like he is part of the central narrative, and an important character in the story. I already figured that he could be a man to be trusted with your life, and I am hoping that his grievances with Brett will be over and done with at some point, and they will solve the case together by the end of the season. This episode brought the character front and center, which was helpful to make him a likable character after he has been something of a dick during the previous four episodes.
But there is not much to talk about a hostage crisis episode, considering there was not much story development here, as most time was taken away by Brett and Chad having a chat under the threat of violence and death. Okay, Chad and Brett (seriously, one of them should have had a different name...) talked about the metaphysics of time travel and the like, to remind the audience that the original premise of the series was heavy on science-fiction, but in the end, nothing came of it and the show went back to its actual roots: being a conspiracy action thriller. DAY BREAK is not a show about a man stuck in a time loop, it is a show about Brett not immediately getting the fingerprint analysis he was asking for, so he pushes to get the murder book from the cold case from 1991. And when he could not get that immediately, he flips out, pulls a gun, and takes a hostage. In a way, the writers decided not to give a damn about the time loop any longer (I believe that Brett's day should start with Andrea's phone call now, but that story has been forgotten entirely).
That does not mean the story of this episode was completely useless. It seemed quite obvious that the perpetrators Brett is running from are part of the police force, now that it has been established that one of the SWAT team members was eyeing Brett's sister and putting a laser on Rita's neck for Brett and Chad to see. In a way, Brett got some answers in this episode, although I do not think that he will be using any of that information he got here to hunt down the conspirators. Knowing that they are part of the police force should give Brett enough fire under his butt to start investigating in that direction.
In the meantime, the writers decided not to move forward with the other stories. The cold case from 1991 might have been a focal point in this episode, but the show wasted an entire hour for Brett to get the murder book when he could have asked Chad nicely from the beginning instead of pulling a gun on him. Brett also decided not to wait to find out the identity of the fingerprint and instead go right in on Chad. The writers had two angles to the conspiracy story working at the same time: the hourglass with the fingerprint, and the 1991 cold case. Brett, knowing that he would most likely wake up at 6:18 a.m. again, could have waited for the SID guy first before going to Chad. The detour with the hostage crisis seemed like an unnecessary add-on to give the writers time to figure out the conspiracy while writing it (I am sure the conclusion to it was not fully established before the writers' room started with the scripts), and to give the show a sense of a bottle episode, as most of the hour was set inside Chad's office.
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| This is quite the sweaty situation for Chad to be in. |
It is also obvious now that the bearded guy who kind of looks like Mark
Ruffalo after he was binge-drinking for weeks, is also repeating
his day. I already figured this might be the case when the bearded man's WTF face popped up after Brett was arrested at a different time compared to the pilot episode, but this episode made it sure, and now the writers were just waiting for some reason to make it crystal clear to the viewers. Of course, the writers decided not to deliver that clear twist to the viewers yet, by having the man say "I see you" to Brett instead of asking about his arm. Because if the man would have asked about Brett's arm, there would have been no reason for Brett to cause a hostage crisis.
