A monster is on the loose, revealing that Jimmy wasn’t the first human to be brought back from the dead. Meanwhile, in the Goodwin household, things are escalading quickly now that Mary is cured. On the one hand Otto can’t wait to get rid of Jimmy, while on the other hand, Connor and Alexa continue their secret evil scheming against the twins. Finally, Duval is struggling with the idea of his father possibly coming to live with him…. Share your thoughts on When You Have to Go There, They have to Take You In in the comments!
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Otto seems to be the mad scientist behind the rebirth of several individuals whose regeneration apparently didn’t go as planned, human experiments gone wrong. It’s unclear whether he was working alone or at the behest of a benefactor, but either way he’s the man with the plan, the expertise needed to create new life from the old. Otto is incapable of feeling empathy (which is not an uncommon trait among some on the spectrum), which would explain why he sees Jimmy and others like him only as experiments. I wonder, just how many people has Otto brought back to life without Mary’s knowledge? Otto is easily manipulated, but his sole motivation seems to have been nothing more nefarious than keeping Mary alive.
Speaking of Mary, she is not the innocent the writers seem to want us to believe–she brought Jimmy back to life for self-serving reasons, and he is (to the best of her knowledge) the first human to have successfully regenerated. Yet now she nobly wants to see him free with absolutely no thought for how this regenerative process might affect his health in the long term? She’s just going to send him and his tank on their merry way? Really? No follow-up testing? No monitoring of physical, mental, emotional changes that might or might not be the result of his regeneration? No further investigation of why Jimmy’s DNA was able to cure Mary’s cancer so that others might be cured in the future? I don’t need to be a scientist to know that’s not how science works.
But, perhaps that’s the point. Science that is not explored in a controlled environment can, in fact, create figurative monsters, and maybe even literal ones, like the monster in this episode, a thoughtlessly discarded human specimen. When Mary lets Jimmy go, she’s basically doing the same thing Otto (or someone else) did to tonight’s monster. And even though Alexa isn’t a monster, her situation was also the result of failed human experimentation and it’s hard to blame her for the actions she’s taking now.
I liked the Jimmy/Gracie scene in the car, with Gracie rightfully suspicious of Jimmy and adorably giddy upon “meeting” Mary. Lest we forget how young Gracie is, her decision to take the boyfriend she’s forbidden to see to her granddad’s favorite hangout in a part of town haunted by several brutal murders, not wise.
I also liked the nice banter between Duval and Jimmy, especially at the suitably creepy abandoned amusement park. “…they were clowns,” says a droll Duval (yeah, he so could’ve played Mike Heck). The perfectly timed synchronized swigs of beer was a nice touch too.
Jimmy and Mary, I don’t care. Make that, mostly Mary, I don’t care. Which is fine, I don’t need to like characters to find them interesting. Problem is, I”m not sure I find Mary that interesting, and she should be. She’s an extraordinarily intelligent and beautiful woman who runs a multi-million dollar company and brings people back from the dead. And beats faux-cancer. Yet….
Two more episodes, which makes me a little sad. Next week’s episode looks to be very intense.
I don’t agree about Mary. She actually wanted Jimmy to stay. Jimmy was the one who wanted to leave.
Though I do agree that Mary is the less interesting character. All the character are pretty complex, and well-rounded. Jimmy, Otto, Alexa, they’re all a bit good a bit bad. And even if Duval is mostly the good guy, he’s still expressing lots of feelings (actually LOTS of feelings…) But Mary, I feel like that beyond her being nice, there’s not much.
As for the lack of follow-up, I’d just say the writers are obviously not scientists and don’t care about the science aspect of their story. I think they see it more as a monster story than science-fiction.
Monster stories are science-fiction–Mary Shelley, who wrote Frankenstein, is considered to be the first science fiction writer. The writers may be choosing to focus more on the legal and human aspects of the story, but it is also science fiction. The existence of new Jimmy is the result of science/science fiction, so the story must deal with that on some level, and it’s part of the writers’ job to do care about and research that angle of the story if their going to write about it (they’re not FBI agents either). But maybe I’m getting ahead of the story and that will come.
I know this is technically science-fiction, but my point was that they don’t care much about the science aspect of it. Lots of things make the scientist in me cringe, and I wish they’d be a little more careful and accurate, but I accept to hand-wave it as it’s clearly not where the interest of the story lies.
I do find it “funny” that no one seems really happy that Mary is cured. Well, apart from Otto, but he’s not happy for different reasons.
This is kinda terrifying to think that Otto kept several experiments from Mary. Who knows how many there are? How many secrets did he keep?
At least, he doesn’t seem to actually want to kill Jimmy – at least he wasn’t. Not so sure what he’s gonna do now that he sees the threat Jimmy is.
I wish I could feel bad for Otto to be manipulated like that, but at the same time, he’s also keeping power over his sister…
At least Alexa is conflicted about doing bad things…
I do hope something good is gonna happen for Duval, because poor guy, after his father, the past coming back to haunt them, Gracie acting up, now a colleague being killed? The guy’s gonna need a big hug at some point (I’d be happy to volunteer!)
The scenes with the realtor and with Jimmy and Mary talking twin speak were cute, but I’m not really buying it.
My favorite scenes remain the Jimmy-Duval ones. Though the scene with Gracie and Jimmy in the car was sweet. Gracie is so close. They better tell her before she learns in an unpleasant way…
Not sure why no one likes clowns… I have good memories with clowns…
Great episode. It’s amazing that there is a complex plot to unfold. In the beginning I thought they’ll just tell the father-son conflict, plus case of the week.
I’m sticking to my opinion that Otto is a creep. 🙂 I know you disagree. But he is acting eery, has some serious aggression problem and stalks his sister. That’s definitely putting him in the creepy corner….
First episode, I haven’t been annoyed with Jimmy. That loft, BTW, looked awesome. I would have taken that if I were Jimmy.
The Gracie actress has incredible charisma. Even though her scenes are short she has a great presence. I like to see her.
Tim. Yes, he needs cuddling. Are we building a line here to queue? I’d volunteer as well.
But Duval seems to stand his ground, not getting maneuvered so much by his son. Seeing him and Jimmy start running in the entertainment park, I thought he looks much fitter than his younger father. And of course, I’m not biased!
Oh I agree Otto gives the creeps. He’s definitely a fascinating character (if not all that likeable LOL).
I like the actress playing Gracie too. She was in Red Band Society last year. This was a lovely show and she was great in it.
Actually I think a group hug is in order. Duval needs all the love.
Otto is definitely the more compelling of the Goodwin twins, and in a way I find him more interesting than Jimmy because his autism and social anxiety disorder is grounded in reality. I think the writers have done a credible job of weaving his character into the larger story while remaining true to how his issues manifest. The writers have done their homework on ASD, although I should mention that ASD manifests differently in everyone diagnosed with that developmental/neurological disorder, giving the writers some freedom in how to write Otto.
I wish they’d use Ciara Bravo, who plays Gracie, more often too, and I especially wish Gracie’s relationship with Duval was a little richer. Part of my frustration with this series is the lack of character development for everyone in the Pritchard family, including Duval, who needs someone other than Jimmy to talk to–that problem could easily be solved simply by developing his relationships with Helen and Gracie more fully).
Tim is definitely in great shape. Playing an FBI agent for so long has kept him very fit.
This series is really growing up ep after ep I love Duval and Jimmy relationship and how they try to find a way to cope the new sistuation
and about Otto yes he ‘s the autistic creppy caracther but I think Connor is the bad guy here I think Alexa was the first Otto attempt to rebirth a human being but he in part failed and it was Connor who found her and “saved”her life I think he ‘s working at the same project but Connor hasn’t skills’ Otto so he needs Alexa to bring Otto to him to have the informations he needs ..and I think the thank Alexa keeps in her house is from Connor and not Otto
and even Connor has no empaty he didn’t care that his “monster” killed 9 people and his men a fed …just he wanted everything cleaned up … pure evil!!
Connor is the big baddie, or at least the most willfully self-serving without zero regard for who and what he’s hurting.
The difference between Connor and Otto is that Otto is physically (meaning developmentally) incapable of feeling or expressing empathy (without extensive therapy) whereas Connor just doesn’t give a damn about anyone but himself.