Sibling relations are tough on Journeyman -- if it's not one brother marrying his older brother's ex-girlfriend, becoming a compulsive gambler, and then getting unstuck in time at the most inopportune moments, it's an older brother with rage and robbery issues covering up for his mad-genius, mad-bomber younger brother in the past. Makes my fights with my sisters about eavesdropping and makeup-stealing seem pretty trivial.

Print this manifesto, or everyone gets spoiled.

Jack really came into his own for me this episode -- we got to see him as more than just a sort of schmucklike, overbearing older brother who refuses to trust Dan and more as someone who cares desperately about his family, but relations are so strained from years of family dynamics -- not to mention that whole Dan-marrying-Katie thing -- that he has no idea how to show it other than by being a cop. So yes, he's a hard-ass, and if he were my brother he'd drive me nuts, but we finally got to see what's behind it all: He loves Dan, and he loves Katie, and he wants to make everything ok for them.

Granted, he's going about it completely the wrong way -- what, he didn't think he'd ruffle a few feathers by checking into their financial records, thus causing the bank to put a hold on their credit cards?  I can see why Dan doesn't want to share anything with Jack -- he always jumps to the worst possible conclusion, so why even bother? But then we saw Jack and Katie in the past, where Katie confesses that she's pregnant and Dan asked her to marry him. Jack was shocked and hurt -- a part of him still loved Katie then, and still loves her now -- but he first wanted to take care of Dan. Instead of taking the opportunity to drive a wedge between Dan and Katie before it was too late, he reassured Katie and tries to make sure his brother would be happy. That's love.

And, funnily enough, that's just the sort of case Dan is dealing with in the past. He's tracking Michael and Steve Kowalchuk, young brothers when he first meets them in 1986. The boys are dealing with an abusive dad, and Michael has got some rage issues and likes stealing cars and blowing things up. Dan keeps him from being blown up by a model rocket, then gets him started on the road to repairing cars instead of stealing them. Back in the present, he suspects that Michael grew up to be a Unabomber type who killed several science types with his homemade bombs. And sure, Michael was the one with the temper, but Steve was the one babbling about fuel loads and thrust-compression rations and space shuttle explosions when they first meet.  It doesn't take a genius to realize that hey, maybe the genius is the one who blows things up.

Dan prevents anyone from dying from Steven's first bomb, then tracks Michael down and convinces him to let him talk to Steven. Steven, being (1) a genius and (2) off his meds realizes that Dan is a time traveler, and lets Dan talk him down with (somewhat trite) explanations that love is the universal constant. I hope his newspaper articles read better than that little speech. In the present, Dan and Steven meet again, and Steven now says he knows time travel is really impossible. He still seems inordinately interested in Dan's shoes, though. Footwear fetish, or a clue that Dan's boots are made for walking through time?

Other highlights:

• Zack's Halloween costume --  a cute little bug with six arms -- is utterly adorable. Less adorable: He's found Dan's stash of hijacked money, and is perfectly willing to talk about Daddy's magic disappearing trick. D'oh!
• Katie is looking to get back to work -- but she's worried that Dan will be threatened. I assume that's because of the time travel thing, not because he's got a problem with the little woman leaving the house. Because if it's the latter... well, Katie can take care of herself.
• The Vassers are having cash-flow problems, and that's only partially because Jack got their credit cards frozen. The house needs a new roof, the bills are piling up, and newspapers are downsizing right and left. Boy, it's tempting to dip into Dan's hijacked windfall... but that would be very bad. It's only a matter of time before Jack finds the cash, though, and it won't be good when he does.
• Jack's girlfriend still seems awfully interested in what's up with Dan. The jury's still out on her...
• Jack has a sweet, sweet cherry-red muscle car, and Dan has always coveted it. Jack never let him drove. Fortunately, he knows where Jack parked it in the past, and Livia is quite capable of picking locks and jump-starting engines. That's a good skill to have.
• Hugh promises Katie that Dan's got a job as long as Hugh's in charge. But he's looking awfully anxious about Dan delivering some blockbuster stories.
• Our physicist friend Elliot Langley is somehow connected with Steven the mad-bomber technophobic genius. Innnteresting.
• On a completely shallow note, Dan waking up in the opening wearing the Halloween mask -- yowza. And Jack as a cowboy wasn't difficult to look at either.

What did you think? What's with the shoe mentions? Is Katie right to go back to work? How long before Jack finds Dan's cache of stolen money? What's going to go wrong next for the Vassers?

Comments

The shoe thing was really awkward, maybe they'll delve into that a little more.

Corey | Oct 29, 2007 10:23:31 PM | #

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This really felt like a steppingstone episode. It was still good, but it felt like it was trying to build things, by developing the relationships, digging into work issues, and so forth. I guess, in many respects, this show is more about human interaction than it is about time traveling and saving people.

I actually thought the most interesting part of the show was when Dan forgot that, since he had changed the past, the future had changed and as such, Hugh had no clue what he was talking about.

Tony | Oct 29, 2007 11:38:10 PM | #

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Anybody noticed that Steve Whatshisname looks like a younger version of Dr. Langley?

Dan | Oct 30, 2007 3:43:10 AM | #

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Here's what I understand of the shoes: Steve was judging Dan's style of dress when he was trying to decide if he was from the future or the past. Later, I think he noticed that the shows were the same as when they met a few years ago.
The love speech was lame, but it seemed like he realized that as he was saying it.
Oh, and I was momentarily alarmed when Katie told Jack she was pregnant. I said "Let's NOT have Zach really be Jack's kid." I don't think that's true though.

Billiam | Oct 30, 2007 5:13:46 AM | #

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One of the things I really like about this show is that it answers a lot of the questions I had. This episode especially, I was really wondering what the effects of Dan's time traveling were on the timeline of events: by preventing the older brother from being a car thief, does the woman who told Dan about him at the paper remember their conversation? Then, by preventing the younger brother from becoming a mad bomber, did the editor remember the various conversations they had had about the bombings? Well, at the end of the episode they answered that particular question, which I liked.

Also, early in the episode, I absolutely loved the scene where Zach found the money and was asking Katie about it, and she said it was play money, and then when Zach asked if he could play with it and she responded no, and then said something like "it's rude to talk about money." The look on her face as she delivered that line was priceless. Gretchen Egolf is a fantastic actress, and if this show really doesn't make it (though I strongly hope it does), I hope to see her in other things in the future.

Chris | Oct 30, 2007 6:04:33 AM | #

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I had the same thought about Zack being Jack's kid. Just HOW tangled web do we want to weave here?
I caught one piece of info I wasn't aware of before. Livia only appears when Dan is "off the track". How the heck can she know that? Someone or some people are obviously monitoring the time-line. So when does Sam Backett make his appearance as the time-line observer?
You would think they would put that money in a safety deposit box.

trekbw | Oct 30, 2007 6:14:56 AM | #

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hey, did anyone else notice Barrack Obamma on TV in the background behind Dan's boss around the 10:20 mark? Is that NBC's subliminal endorsement. This show gets better with each episode.

Tony from Jersey | Oct 30, 2007 7:20:09 AM | #

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I don't think we have to worry about Zack really being Jack's son. I liked the way we got more insight into Jack, he's a lot more likeable now.

Darius | Oct 30, 2007 8:27:43 AM | #

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I still love this show, even though the ratings haven't been that great. I agree with Tony -- Journeyman is so compelling because it focuses on family and human interaction, not just the sci-fi aspect of time travel. Some viewers have been complaining about Jack's behavior, but I think that this episode showed that he has always looked out for his younger brother.

My favorite scene in this episode was when Katie was telling Jack that she was going to marry Dan, but she wasn't sure if it was the right decision. Reed Diamond displayed the perfect balance between looking hurt (that Katie was choosing Dan over him) and looking supportive. Also, I loved how in the background you could see Dan who looked shocked, while Livia looked heartbroken. Great acting all around! Hopefully, this scene puts to rest any doubts that Zack really is Dan's son, not Jack's.

I think that Steven made the comment about Dan's shoes because he thought that they were some kind of proof that Dan was a time traveler. He asked Dan whether he came from the future or the past. **NO SPOILERS** Maybe Steven and Dr. Langley WERE working together on time travel research, but then Steven's memory of it was erased? Dr. Langley seemed like he was hiding some information from Dan.

Paige | Oct 30, 2007 8:32:14 AM | #

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the bomber knows all. He may have discovered the time travel with the good guys or concurrently as a bad guy wifh sdperate reseach.
Most importantly Livia is clearly evil and is most likely there to thwart Dan but she doesn't know what he's up to or how to stop him. She doesnt want to kill him, only stop him

marius | Oct 30, 2007 9:55:25 AM | #

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marius - just wondering where you get the vibe that Livia is evil? Seems to me like the show is implying that she got tired of trying to figure things out and just goes with the flow.

I really don't think there's anything tangled with the child. I think Zach is Dan's, and Jack was just surprised to hear about it, and wanted to make sure it wasn't a scare. Btw, that was a nice touch, indirectly referencing a previous episode (when we first learned that Katie had a pregnancy scare with Jack, was that episode 2?)

Tony | Oct 30, 2007 10:08:21 AM | #

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I think the 'shoes' part was Steven's way of saying that he knew (in the past and present) that there was an anomaly in the way Dan dressed - which was very interesting. Since Dan 'travels' in whatever he's wearing in the present, something could be anomalous 20-30 years ago. I didn't notice what kind of shoes Dan wears, but if they're Nike's or something like that, they wouldn't exist back then. I took his comment (in the present) as a 'wink and nod' to Dan about time-travel, his comments about 'disproving' it notwithstanding.
The most interesting little thing about the episode is what the effect would be of Dan spending the money in the present - would he have to return it? He certainly couldn't be accused of the crime.
I really hope they bring Jack in on the secret and focus on the mystery surrounding the time-travel itself. Otherwise Jack will just be an unnecessary, and irritating, fly-in-the-ointment.
It also seems that the journeys themselves are so random and basically trivial that they are almost pointless. At the moment, he's basically a guardian angel for the victim-du-jour and however satisfying that might be on an individual basis it will grow old quickly without some innovation. They do seem to be going in the right direction - I loved Zach's comment about Daddy's 'magic' being cool!

wmeador | Oct 30, 2007 10:57:38 AM | #

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I like how they are finally showing Dan and Jack's relationship could be going back on track. Zack and Katie's scene with the briefcase was so cute. Livia's contribution to the storyline continues to confuse me. Dan watching Katie and Jack talk about him and her pregnancy was an interesting scene, and it finally showed Jack in a good light which I thought they really needed. I don't really see the purpose of Jack's girlfriend. I like how they showed how Dan changing the past changes the present and he doesn't even realize it until he talks to someone else about what he had done.

Penny | Oct 30, 2007 11:33:26 AM | #

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I feel like they are going to do something with Jack's girlfriend. I could see her being someone assigned to keep tabs on Dan in the present, or something like that. Just a vibe.

Tony | Oct 30, 2007 12:52:14 PM | #

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I don't think Livia is evil, but I get the feeling she might know a whole lot more than she's letting on, and that she'll get in Dan's way if needs be. In the darker parts of my mind, I'm wondering if she wasn't with Dan originally anyway just to eventually drag him into the whole time-traveling thing. Maybe she put something in his tea, who knows...But I do know this: if I see one more advertisement, overt or otherwise, for that damned Bee movie, I'll stop watching NBC on general principles. I like the Monday shows, but I hate, hate, HATE being forced to watch commercials when the commercials aren't even on. If this is the wave of the future...well, thank all that is unholy that a lot of older shows are out on DVD. I can make up an entire year of viewing on my collection of The X-Files and various others alone. Anyway, I agree with everyone that this was a watershed episode, and that even if Journeyman doesn't make it to season 2, the writers have done a decent job of taking the plot to a point where it can be nicely and neatly wrapped up. Too bad they couldn't have done the same for Firefly, but eh...

Dark Disciple | Oct 30, 2007 1:11:17 PM | #

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Its interesting that every time Dan succeeds in a mission, he is correcting a "bad thing" which was or would be "News" and eliminating or minimizing it to such an extent that he as a reporter would never write about it. This is going to bite his ass in the present day, as "good news is no news".

Puff | Oct 30, 2007 1:51:43 PM | #

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It's good to see that there are a few people who are passionate about this show. I really like it, too, but I think the ratings will doom it. I don't want to get too attached to it, but I'll keep watching as long as it's on. Don't think a "Back 9" is in the show's future.

A | Oct 30, 2007 5:01:57 PM | #

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I hope NBC sticks with this show. It's just alot of fun....it has better constructed stories than Bionic Woman and this season, even Heroes.
Are you listening NBC? Let this show grow and please start promoting it.

bill | Oct 30, 2007 8:54:06 PM | #

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A 3.8 ain't good folks. The fact that NBC hasn't asked for more scripts for Journeyman or Chuck with the writer's strike mere hours away should worry us.

Corey | Oct 30, 2007 9:21:06 PM | #

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Corey -- NBC asked for addition Chuck scripts *weeks* ago. Journeyman? Not-so-much.

-Gavin

Gavin | Oct 30, 2007 9:27:37 PM | #

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