The Founder has taken over Ultra and declares to everyone
that they will no longer hunt Paranormals, that they were blessed beings who
needed to be part of society and it was all the evil evil evil Jedikiah’s
fault. In future new breakouts will be educated and told to behave and
released!
I’m impressed – I thought Stephen “undercover” was the
most ridiculous attempt at subterfuge on this show, now they’ve topped it!
Seriously no-one can possibly believe the Founder here.
Meanwhile John is angsting over having killed Cassie
which he rapidly gets over when he makes out with Cara when Stephen interrupts
them. AND HE COMPLETELY BELIEVES THE FOUNDER HAS HAD A CHANGE OF HEART
Oh for gods’ sake! Someone get me a bottle of something
at least 30 proof, because there’s no way I’m getting through this episode
without it.
Anyway, we have a new breakout using his powers to do
magic tricks in the street. Hillary takes this to the Founder with Stephen and
the Founder is being creepily nice – wanting to be called by his first name and
his door is always open – is anyone (except the not very bright Stephen)
actually buying this? Stephen then has a little hissy fit at Hillary and now he
chooses to be cynical about the Founder when it gives him the chance to get on
Hillary’s case – but he was defending the guy to Cara and John. They have a bet
on whether the Founder can be trusted or not
And Stephen is ambushed by Jedikiah for a meeting. Jedikiah wants help bringing down the Founder, Stephen point out that Jedikiah was the one with kill squads. He says the Founder plans to kill millions of humans and he needs Stephen’s hardly-ever-used time stopping ability. Stephen isn’t ready to jump to Jed’s team.
Hillary and Stephen go out for a drink and see Monty’s
act (hey, anyone remember Stephen is supposed to be 18?) and track down the
break out – though Cara (for once making sense) points out they are actually
risking the life of a very harmless Paranormal just to test whether the Founder
is telling the truth or not (or, more accurately, they’re risking the life of a
paranormal to test whether the founder will reveal his evil now or later). Cara
and John decide to intercept. So all four of them get to see Monty’s act and
Cara insists that she and John sit with Stephen because… because… because
forcing socially awkward scenes that could expose the Tomorrow People to an
Ultra agent is funsies?
Hillary ambushes the magician after the show, slamming
him into a wall (new caring Ultra still includes abductions) – and Cara does
the same to her. Hillary and Cara fight. John and Stephen watch until Stephen
points out they have to fight or Hillary will realise something’s up. In the
end, Cara escapes with the magician.
While Jedikiah visits Stephen’s home - Marla is out, only
little brother Luca is at home. Of course, in keeping with ridiculous family
habits, no-one has told Luca about anything. And Jedikiah is carrying a gun –
because he conspicuously checks it.
When Stephen returns home – with Astrid who has been called by Jedikiah – Luca is bemused because Jed has spilled the big secret. He’s done it expressly to risk Luca’s life with the big secret to force Stephen to play with him. That’s it – hold him down, let Astrid do the stabbing. Jedikiah then puts a gun to Luca’s head. Hell, Jed, never mind Stephen, Marla’s going to tear you into itty bitty pieces. Stephen knocks the gun out of his hand. Luca is duly freaked out and runs out, Astrid following him
Stephen commences the savage beating Jedikiah deserves;
even going so far as to strangle the man until the anti-murder pain kicks in.
In Tomorrow People HQ, Cara explains that the reason why she
nearly blew Stephen’s cover – she is willing to risk Stephen’s life to prove
the Founder is evil. Because… yeah she’s Cara and isn’t fit to lead a game of
crazy golf (yes there are no teams in crazy golf. She’s still not fit to lead
it). John is feeling all guilty about the Founder because of the daughter
murder thing. And Monty the magician is all very sad because his super special
abilities are shared by other people and being able to move things with his
mind and teleport is just boring and mediocre if a dozen other people can also
do it.
Back at Ultra, the Founder is moping about his daughter
and the threat of humans (who haven’t really being a threat except as members
of the organisation he Founded, it has to be said). And Hillary bustles in with
a “let’s wipe out the Tomorrow People” pitch. Because that really fits with her
character development of wanting to do good and Ultra’s supposedly changed
ethos. The Founder casually exposes Stephen’s “ties” to the Tomorrow People and
asks him to arrange a truce – but he needs the new breakout.
Yes Stephen believes him, yes he tries to convince Cara,
yes, it gives me a migraine dealing with this foolishness. And Cara has decided
that Stephen has been compromised by being attracted to Hillary… what? Just…
what? Stephen puts that down to Cara being jealous which is also silly but also
the only explanation that comes close to Cara’s sudden leap of logic.
At Ultra HQ, Stephen is worried about Luca not returning his calls and, since he sees a tactical team setting out, he worries and has Hillary look for him on facial recognition in their super computers. But no the tactical team is just there in case violence is necessary in bringing in a street musician. And tying him in a chair and being ready to drug him. They do – then let him go asking him to keep his tricks plausible.
Um… did that really require the whole tactical team, the
drugging and the chair? And what was in the needle? This is ridiculous. The
Founder can’t even answer these questions – just that they should trust him (injecting
unknown substances into people)
And Jedikiah hacks Tim to get a message to John to save humanity and someone “dear to both of them”. Roger (and Stephen who will die trusting the Founder along with everyone else). He takes John to Roger’s body but he needs Stephen to bring him back but unfortunately holding Stephen’s brother at gun point just rather drastically failed as a persuasion method. Astonishing how that works.
Hillary finds Luca, delivers him to Astrid who passes him
to Stephen. Things are awkward between them
And Stephen, wearing just his underwear, gets a visit
from Hillary who declares her the winner of the “be my slave for a week” bet.
Which means sex of course.
John runs to Cara with the news about Roger and they need
to find Stephen – so she teleport’s to Stephen’s house in time to mentally
eaves drop on them having sex (well, CW-style grinding underwear together).
Cara returns to the HQ in a huff, deciding they’re losing Stephen to Ultra.
Later, Stephen has a late night meeting with the Founder
who reveals the injection was a tracking device – he shows a computer full of
all the Paranormals he’s been tagging and releasing showing there’s over 200 of
them in New York alone.
Ahem, ok better than murdering them but are we supposed
to see injecting tracking chips against their will as progressive? Really?
And he wants Stephen to lead them to the Refuge. Wherever
that is. Using the special machine Roger built (a power amplifier) – and then destroyed
because Jedikiah is EVILLLL.
Going to the Refuge needs a portal – and to do that you
need someone who can stop time. And Stephen, being an amazing fool, agrees to
go on a test run (which requires shirtlessness, of course)
Stephen goes to a dreamy type zone where he can talk to his father. He starts to say something ominous about the machine but then Stephen is dragged back to the real world.
The Founder as a good guy. No no no no no. He wasn’t some
absent boss – he was involved in the organisation on several occasions. We saw
him have someone killed when working on his little telepath search machine.
Jedikiah was clearly utterly terrified of the man and struggling under his
control. This was all blatant! There is no way anyone can believe all the bad
stuff of Ultra was Jedikiah’s fault! How can anyone buy this for a second? Not
just Stephen, but anyone – the guy never kept his actions secret!
There is NO REASON to trust the Founder or Jedikiah. This isn’t an either/or choice here.
However, while John and Stephen are both ridiculously
wrong to trust the Founder – Cara deciding to just shatter Stephen’s cover
because… what? Spite? Pique? Childish tantrum? That’s pathetic. Cara has been
an utterly awful leader for her stint as boss but this is a new record even for
her.
John angsting over killing Cassie may seem a lot like the
classic “ooh look convoluted angst” since it clearly wasn’t his fault and
protagonists/main characters beating themselves up for bad things out of their
control is common in fiction to prove how good and pure they are(and the fact
the Founder can use telekinesis to throw a bullet from him to someone else begs
just what the limits of this “no murder” clause is). But it could be so much
more, assuming you extrapolate on a lot of things Tomorrow People has hinted at but utterly failed to explore in
decent depth. Paranormals can’t kill. It’s an inherent biological element of
the Paranormals – and while too many characters look at John as a convenient
killbot, there’s an undercurrent that not being able to kill is an ASSET of the
species. That John, as a killer, is a freak, an abomination – a perversion of
what they are. He is broken for lacking that limit, that inherent limit that,
in some ways, is more fundamental to who they are as people than even their
powers. In that room where Cassie died, John was the only person who even had
the capacity to kill – because everyone was a Paranormal, inherently not
murderers.
John’s ability to kill isn’t an asset – it’s an
abomination, it’s a sign he is broken and part of him that goes against
everything they stand for and will stop him from ever being a true Paranormal.
At least, if they had the gumption to explore it more, this could have been the element. But it’s only touched upon – and the whole not killing thing is not treated with anything close to the depth and fascination it should have!
I just cannot abide the ridiculous decisions these
characters make. I am really past done with them – all of them. They’re
ridiculous, the plot makes no sense, the characters make no sense and either everyone
is being really clumsily retconned or there’s a lot of selective amnesia. You’ve
heard that saying about how monkeys
on typewriters can eventually write the perfect story? Well, this is one of
their earlier attempts. If the moneys were drunk.
