Ben finds himself leaping into the same situation repeatedly…

Groundhog Day? Rashomon? GoldenEye? The show opens with a bomb blowing up Ben and four others in a nuclear power plant. Yes, viewers already know he gets better. Still, the rest of the cast play the scene with wrenching emotion and make it quite gripping.

This episode seems to want to examine gray areas of morality instead of black and white. It delves into personal responsibility, and what one owes oneself compared to what one owes others. Excellent concept, not quite so much with the execution, although it shows a change, however slight, in the dynamic between the team and Janis.

First, the concept. Kudos for trying to deal with gray areas instead of black-white/good-evil. Self-examination and self-awareness are important and beneficial. The execution falls flat when the comparison is between Ben/the team doing their best to help people, save lives and get him/their friend home and a person self-righteously murdering four people and using a pen detonator to blow up a nuclear plant. The difference in circumstances is, well, black and white. Not a very difficult choice.

One example of good execution: the ongoing metamorphosis (or revelations) of Janis’s character. It remains intriguing, and it will be interesting to see the direction it takes. Hopefully the slow build (much more logical and convincing than a sudden about-face) will pay off big time in the end. Ian determines Ben is stuck in a timeloop. The foremost expert on those is – surprise, surprise – Janis. They decide they need to risk telling her what is currently happening to see if she can shed any light, which she does. In a bonding moment at the end, Janis says she’ll tell Addison – cue portentous music – the name of the person who told Ben to leap. Cut to black.

At one point before that, the team debates pulling the plug entirely in an attempt to save Ben’s life by forcing a premature leap. Ian favors that approach. Janis protests, finally blurting out that it will mess up Ben’s trajectory on where he needs to end up. Magic decides to let Ben finish, and all ends well.

In a nice bit after the resolution, Jenn calls out Magic and demands to know why he trusted Janis and – in Jenn’s view – sided with Janis against the rest of the team. He first says it was his call and he was willing to take full responsibility for its success or failure. Jess presses, pointing out it wasn’t about responsibility, it was about the results, specifically, the effects that follow. Whatever happened would affect all of them, not just him. Magic admits he was trying to right a wrong and always regretted siding with Janis’s mother to prevent Janis from joining the program. Had he not done that, he feels like they might not be facing the problem of Ben’s premature leap. More importantly, though, he feels like he was just plain wrong and cheated her. This part – the dilemma of hindsight versus making the best possible call at the time, plus being mindful and taking responsibility – works much better than exploring the shades of gray.

Verdict: Bunches and bunches of new developments in this one with lots of good character bits as well. 8/10

Rigel Ailur

http://www.BluetrixBooks.com