Episode 93
Death Toll (03-12-06)
Brief Synopsis:
A bomb explodes in the tunnel of the T killing twenty people.
Well...I didn’t love it, didn’t hate it, it was just
okay. It felt like a set up for what’s to come. The
calm before the storm. I did loved how it was filmed
with the interlacing of the past (the bombing two days
ago) and the present (in Dr. Stiles office). The
constant back and forth of telling the story from
actions and words I thought worked very well and pulled
the story together.
The tragedy of the children, their teacher, and others
riding the train, being killed was heart wrenching.
Tragedy like that pulls as your heart. That said… I
felt emotionally detached from the episode as I
watched. I’m not sure if it’s the story telling—by that
I mean that the characters were reliving the event as
the story was told. I felt like I was on the outside
looking in. We weren’t right there as things happened.
Don’t get me wrong. It was insightful to our
characters…we were shown the growth or beloved
characters have experienced in the past five years, very
important to the episode. I guess I just wanted to be a
part of it
If
you think back to One Twelve I felt so much more urgency
and grief in that episode. Not only were we worrying
about the trapped man, we had an amazing performance
with Garret and recovering the bodies as well as tension
(so thick it’d take more than a knife to cut through it)
with Elaine. That episode had you on edge and tense the
entire time.
That said, that is were the difference in these
two episodes lie. One Twelve was a
catastrophe that was happening in the present: we were
seeing our characters react as events unfolded.
Whereas Death Toll was a catastrophe that
the characters were reliving. We were seeing the
aftermath of how they were reacting to the tragedy. And
that was what was important to this episode. This
separates the two episodes making them distinctly two
different stories.
I
thought it was wonderful how Dr. Stiles picked up on
each person’s vulnerability. He’s made this episode
work. Wonderful performance by Wallace Shawn. He
reminded me how much I miss Dr. Stiles.
I’m having issues writing about the characters. There
really isn’t much I can say. I felt like a spectator to
a private session…unable to say or add any thoughts,
just there to watch. As we watched Dr. Stiles with the
characters he identified and pulled out the root of each
character’s issue showing just how much they’ve grown
from that first episode five years ago.
Jordan
REGRET
Stiles: Well, life’s a lot simpler if you only have
yourself to worry about.
Jordan: Maybe life’s not supposed to be that simple.
Stiles: Do you regret the choices that you have made?
Jordan is changing. I love seeing this growth in
Jordan. After five years she is finally starting to
realize what she wants in life…or I should actually say
what is important to her. It’s interesting that Stiles
asks her if she regrets the decisions she’s made in her
life. I got the impression that she doesn’t so much
regret them as that she’s learning from them, and is
realizing what she wants.
Jordan’s comment at the end: “To
have unconditional love for someone and have that person
clearly love you back"… Makes me think she’s talking
about (and WANTING) two things 1) Parent-Child love and
2) Sharing her life with someone. It was a great way
to prepare us for events that will probably unfold with
Jordan in the rest of this season. (i.e. Jordan taking
in the girl in an upcoming episode…)
Garret
REGRET
Stiles: Do you regret the choices that you have made?
(cut)
Garret: We didn’t even name him, after he died we just
pretended he never existed.
The revelation about Garret was an interesting one. I
was expecting something—his reaction to Lily and the
baby was too strong for it not to have some deep meaning
to Garret. I was surprised that Garret’s secret was
that Abby had a twin brother who died at birth. That’s
a heavy secret to bear.
I don’t know how he DIDN’T tell anyone, but everyone
deals with those things differently. My bet is if
Garret had let himself hold his son, bond with him (no
matter how little time he had with him) he’d have
probably been able to accept the baby’s death easier.
Regret’s an awful emotion to live with.
Lily
FEAR
Stiles: What are you really afraid of?
Lily: What if I’m getting too good at this job?
It was telling to see Lily afraid. We’ve seen her doubt
herself, we’ve seen her question her actions, we’ve seen
her break down, we’ve seen her feel for those she’s
helping, but we’ve never seen her fear herself. Lily
has always been the one to emotionally connect with
people, which is part of what makes her so good.
It was interesting to see her fear herself because she’s
learned to detach herself to a degree from the people
she’s helping. She realizes she can be good and not cry
with every lost soul that walks through the morgue
doors. However I still think that fear lingers…it’ll be
interesting to see how it plays out…if it will play any
role in upcoming episodes.
Bug
CHANGE
Stiles: It can’t change back into a caterpillar
Bug: But I wonder if there are moments it wishes it
could.
I
loved Bug’s analogy of himself to the
caterpillar/butterfly. A “sleepy transformation”—the
perfect way to describe Bug. Out of everyone in the
morgue, Bug has changed the slowest…always moving at his
own pace. What was interesting to me was Bug realizing
he’s changed, but still wanting to go back to being the
old Bug sometimes. It’s my belief that Bug will move
forward and leave the past behind him (that includes
Lily).
Nigel
BEING DIFFERENT
Nigel: She looked at me as if I was an insensitive clod!
Stiles: Federal agents tend to take their jobs very
seriously.
He
felt guilty for how he handled the stress of the
situation, when really he had no reason to. People deal
with traumatic situations differently. Why should
Nigel’s way be any less real than that of others?
Woody
GUILT
Stiles: You feel guilty because you couldn’t save him?
Woody: I feel guilty about a lot of things.
Guilt! Ha about Lu and Jordan! Okay I’ll get back to
that. Woody’s reaction is how I would have predicted
Woody would act. His job is to save people, the good
and bad (then handing the bad guy over to our judicial
system). He takes pride in saving and helping people.
He already dealt with the dead school children, then he
has to add one more death to that, the bombers, when he
can’t save him.
Then there’s Woody’s personal life. So I took Woody’s
comment “In between frustrating and weird” to be in
reference to Jordan and Lu, respectively. What’s up
with Woody? I really have nothing more to say. I’m
just rolling my eyes and sitting back to watch this
story unfold.
Lu
DENIAL
Stiles: One shrink to another I’d say we are dealing
with a classic case of avoidance.
Lu: I’m not trying to avoid anything.
Stiles: Avoidance and denial, this is worse than I
thought…
So
we found out what Lu was running from. The thing with
running, is no matter how far you run you can never run
far enough. Her emotional break down was completely
believable to me. And that it was to Woody she went to
didn’t surprise me either. He was the only one to pick
up on Lu’s grief. He offered to listen. I have to say
it’s nice to start getting a back story to Lu. I really
want to see her grow into a strong character. I like
her.
I
suppose I have to comment on the kiss. It didn’t bother
me. It was one of those in the ‘moment’ events that
just happened. The talking about it killed it though.
They shouldn’t have mentioned it to Dr. Stiles. It took
away from the moment.
Notes:
-
There was one scene where we were in Dr. Stiles
office with Woody. Stiles was in the background, Woody
in the foreground and when each spoke the camera would
focus on the one speaking and fuzz the one not. This
back and for made me dizzy! It was the only aspect of
filming that I didn’t like. The rest I LOVED.
-
I really like the performance of Charlie’s Mom
and the Husband of the pregnant teacher. I think I
liked them so much because it really made Jordan and
Lily shine. The scenes just worked for me, and I really
enjoyed them.
-
So this bothers me though it might not bother
others. Why would the guy get on the T on the TRACK
that HAS the bomb on it? And on that note there were
inaccuracies with the subway car they used, the
emergency break and the T station where the third bomb
was supposedly. (See the episode page)
-
Why was the bomber still at the T and not at the
hospital with everyone else?
-
Lastly, I don’t get how Woody KNEW where the last
bomb was. They barely looked at the map.
So
there were a bunch of inconsistencies and I’m being a
pain about them and pointing them all out. I know, I
know I should be focusing instead on the characters
since that’s what the whole episode was about.
This
might make me unpopular, but I’m giving this episode 3 ½
out of 5 dead bodies. It was a good character episode,
but I felt it—ultimately—fell a little short. (There
have been many episodes this season which far exceed
this one—Under the Weather, Road Kill, The Elephant in
the Room…) I have to say though—I LOVED the way it was
filmed and the way the story was told (okay I know
that’s the third time I’ve said that.)
