Journeyman: "Perfidia" (Episode 113)

"Cancelled? You don't say."

This is it, the end of the line. While much more comprehendible than the end of Quantum Leap, I can’t say that this show was particularly satisfying as a series ender… even to a series that I grew to despise. I will give the showrunners some credit though, as this was certainly the most interesting episode that I have seen since the pilot. It’s almost as if cramming in all kinds of “satisfying” answers and stuffing the show to the brim to make up for a truncated season finally gave the plot enough substance to carry it through a whole forty some odd minutes. There was no time to waste on excruciating exposition, as they barely had time for the plot itself. But besides removing the absolute waste of time that most scenes in this show seem to be guilty of, it was almost as if the episode didn’t give us time to dwell on all the aspects of the show that don’t work. The domestic scenes weren’t up long enough to truly annoy, Jack was boiled down to his essentials, the scenes got in, made their point and got out again. But don’t get me wrong, I’m still pleased that I’m finished with this series and no amount of over-stuffing the plot was ever going to smooth out some of the wrinkles that the writing still left in the show. Oh, and damn Journeyman for their Back to the Future II moments and for making me go back and actually read my recap of the pilot. It sadly reminded me of where this show began and all that could have been. If you continue to read the run of recaps, you can actually watch my bile grow as if it was a time-lapse shot of fruit rotting in a bowl. It’s true that maybe networks don’t give a show enough time to find an audience and I know the best of shows have started out extremely rough (Buffy), but looking back, I stand by my critiques of the show and I’m furious that the creative team behind the series didn’t strive for something much more than what they were presenting us with.

The "not so evil" Leaper.We begin with Dan Vasser, time-leaper extraordinaire; already in the past (we can tell by the lovely greenish tint of the picture). Dan tries to leave the garden he finds himself in, presumably to get help for the blood dripping out of his forehead. A run-in with a cranky (and perhaps crazy) man clipping the hedges informs him that he’s back in 2007—Oh wait. Funny, I don’t remember everything being sickly green way back then. Dan is greeted by a man who seems far too familiar with Dan’s predicament. He learns very quickly that he’s leaped into a psych hospital. The guy figures that Dan must have shown up to help him and he informs Dan that he’s one of him. Huh? He says, “I’m one of you.” Shouldn’t it be “you’re one of us” or even “we’re the same”? Well, he’s one of Dan. This should be interesting at least.

Cue crazy backwards credits.

Dan doesn’t believe Leaper #2 (Evan), even though the guy seems to have knowledge and we know that Dan suspects that there are others out there. Dan tries to walk out of the hospital, but of course that doesn’t work and he’s forced to go along with the scenario.

"Ugh, stupid time traveler, always bleeding everywhere..."Back home in 2007, Wifey and Sissy return home only to find blood on the floor from when Dan leaped away. Wifey tries to say that it must have been a shaving accent, but Sissy calls bull. Later Dan informs us that he slipped getting out of the shower. He throws it off so casually, but looking at this blood, I wonder who the hell smashes their head open on the bathroom floor like that. Jesus, buy a bathmat.

"Wait, am I technically 2008 Dan?"Back in 2007 (this is going to get difficult), we know that it’s 2007 (sigh) cause it’s still sickly green and Larry Craig is on the television set. It’s nice to know that even recent history has to be established with ham-handed uses of news clips and music. Thank god, I thought it was just the mid-nineties and earlier. Evan is jumpy, but he wants to know about Dan. He wants an attendant to contact a woman for him, but when he tells Evan not to sweat the small stuff, he freaks out on him proclaiming how the small stuff adds up (see Ray Bradbury’s “Sound of Thunder”). Evan points out to Dan that this freakout is actually him"I changed the timeline. Like you did. Last week. What is wrong with you!" on sedatives. He made the mistake of getting into it with the authorities about how he’s a traveler, which made him end up in the loony bin in the first place. The sedatives don’t help with any headaches (he feels numbness in his hands before he leaps), but they may be preventing him from leaping at all. From his journal, he pulls a photo of a woman who “should be” his wife. Instead he calls the woman the love of his life and tells Dan how he needs help to get out and contact her. It’s pretty clear to me already at this point that the woman in the photo was his wife in his original timeline that he accidentally must have erased. It takes Lucius Retardus about 25 more minutes to catch on, even though he himself erased his son last week.

At home, the family is concerned, but we’re not, as we know exactly what’s going on with Ol' Dan. Jack mentions the Langley connection and tells Wifey that he plans on trying to catch up with him by following him. Sissy tries to push Wifey to look into moving into a new place. Wifey and Jack have an awkward moment discussion old relationships and how Jack is going to be a father.

At the asylum, Dan causes a scene allowing Evan to sneak out. Dan vanishes in mid-fight underneath a table, lending to more than a little confusion on the attendant’s part. Back home, Wifey is relieved to see Dan and he tells her all about his new friend Evan. Wifey says that it would be nice to have someone else around with the same affliction (that’s not hot), someone’s who’s been doing it for awhile and can give Dan some insight (I know the “hot clause”, but isn’t that still Livia?). Dan points out that it can’t be Evan, because he’s dead, killed jaywalking.

Dan needs to “go” (as in leaping, not peeing) and Wifey asks to watch it happen. She almost sees it, before Sissy comes in and ruins the moment. Dan rushes out the door and we see the flash reflected in the window in the back door. Real flash of physical light or some sort of metaphysical effect? Twelve episodes down and the series still can’t decide. Sigh. Sissy has a line on some house that she thinks Wifey should buy (what about layoffs at the paper?)

"We have got to stop wearing those shoes with the Flux Capacitor on them..."Back in September 2007, Dan is walking with Livia and catching her up on the sitch with Evan. So now we have a leaper helping a leaper helping a leaper. Whew. Dan tells Livia how he doesn’t believe Evan at all while strains of the music of late 2007 waft through the air. Dan spots the woman that Evan wants to catch up with and tells us how she’s married to a city official with heavy security. Dan tells Livia about the celestial occurrence that corresponds with their birth, but they spot Evan waltzing in to (is it Café Luna again?) to talk to his past wife. He picks out Livia instantly as a leaper: “You can tell by the shoes.” There apparently was more to Little Bro from “Keepers”. Dan tries to convince Evan that he might not be making the right move here, but he doesn’t want to hear it. Livia convinces Dan to let it play out a little longer.

In a parking garage, Jack questions Langley about Dan and the corrupt FBI agent, but Langley plays dumb all the way through, even when presented with a photo.

Back in 2007, Evan jumps up to talk to his not ex-wife and Livia distracts the city official. The woman has no memory of Evan at all from school or from later. It’s sad and a little disturbing and a lot disturbing that Dan just can’t get it.

More Wifey and Sissy crappy. Dan saved the guy from jaywalking, only to break into the house of his wife later to be shot by the security detail. They mistook a ring box for a weapon. Oh-kay. Dan does his song and dance convincing Hugh that he should spend time researching this guy.

In a lecture hall, Langley is trying to teach his group, but Jack is there to interrupt and pepper the man with questions about time travel. Jack continues to expound on the topic and how his brother can travel, until Langley is completely perturbed.

Livia coined "bridezilla" back in 1948.Back in 2007, Dan flashes in at the same time as Livia, who was in the process of getting ready for her wedding in two hours… fifty years ago. Livia is being a bridezilla, but somehow she can still tell Dan the exact date of when they are, even though she just appeared as well. They know that Evan is going to get himself shot and they stop him on the street. He realizes that Dan knows something bad is going to happen to him and he decides to prove to him that is who he says he is. Dan consults the trusty iPhone and realizes that they can sneak into the paper while 2007 Dan (told you this would get frustrating) is away. But Livia has to remind Dan yet again that she is supposed to be dead in 2007? Sigh.

Apparently it was a slow news day...Dan and Evan pop into the paper and dodge Hugh. Watching the tape, Dan sees a clip of Evan dancing with his wife to “Perfidia” on a news clip about a salsa competition. He cleverly carries all sorts of things with him that aren’t affected by the changes to the timeline. You wonder why Dan doesn’t do the same after blinking his son out of existence. Evan doesn’t have many answers for Dan, but he knows from his fifteen years of traveling that it all has a reason. Dan’s going to change more lives than anyone else on the planet. Evan didn’t just simply erase his marriage though, his wife was killed in 2005 by a guy that he pissed off (in the past or in his tawdry present where he was in Pelican Bay?) and his repairs kept making the situation worse. So he finally changed it so he and his wife never met. She was no longer his, but she was alive again. Now he just wants one more moment with her.

iPhone distraction saved the time-space continuum yet again...Livia calls Dan’s cell, which seems impossible because there are two iPhone with that number present at that moment, and warns Dan that he’s coming back up to the office. Evan warns that things started unraveling for him when his old self saw his new self, and even though Dan can’t remember his own habits from three months ago, they’re still able to dodge ’07 Dan. Evan doesn’t care if he dies today, but he’s going to take his chance and see if there is some trace of their love left in his wife that he can “activate”. Livia is not sure what to do, because Evan is way off mission (but is he in his past?), but Dan doesn’t care. He gets the city official’s schedule and they clean up Evan and head off to a charity function.

Dan asks Livia if she’s told her new husband-to-be about the leaping and she tells him that she has. Good thing to, because she must be mad late for her wedding now…

"Wow, not the type of journey I was looking for."Evan makes his move with a subtle presentation of the ring, asking if anyone lost it, but the wife remembers him from before and they begin talking. Dan gets the band to play “Perfidia” and Evan convinces his wife to step out on the dance floor. She responds to the song for no real reason at all and they begin to dance. She claims that she has no idea how to dance, but somehow something is “activated” and she dances the salsa like the competition winner that she was. Sure, why not. At the end of the dance, Evan and his wife share a moment. He steps back in admiration of her and grabs his arm. Instead of traveling away though, he drops to the floor, dead.

Good thing Dan Vassar is the least observant person on the planet.He’s rolled away with no pulse, but Livia wonders if Evan was destined to die, no matter what. It kind of contradicts the show’s rules on time-travel though, if some things can be pre-destined. Dan and Livia say an awkward goodbye, commenting that they think it’s going to be awhile before they see each other again… which has no logical reason except that the writers were thinking about the strike and the fact that they might be cancelled. At that exact moment though, 2007 Dan wanders by, heading for a taxicab. It’s the first moment that Dan ever traveled, right after Evan passed away. And with that, Livia is gone... back to be extremely late for her wedding.

"You thought you were going to get all the answers? Sucker."Back home, Wifey gets rid of Sissy and not a moment too soon. At work, Dan inspects Evan’s journal, which reveals the story of a leaper who’s ready to leap. Dan did accomplish something in the past though; as he hears on the news that Evan’s wife is leaving her city official husband. At the elevator, he finds someone waiting for him, none other than Elliot Langley. He knew of Evan and is vaguely aware of what they are able to do. He rattles off anachronisms that exist in history and explains that he is part of a group that looks for time travelers to answer these temporal anomalies in the historical record. They discovered a small group of people that can do what Dan does: to travel and change realities. Langley knows that Dan’s family and friends are at risk due to people looking to exploit Dan’s abilities. People are watching, but as far as Langley can tell, no one is “doing” anything to Dan. No one is in control. He suspects that Dan is the very last one of his kind. Dan tells him that he’s wrong, that there’s one more, but he chooses not to tell him more. However, if Livia is from the past, does she even count? Isn’t Dan still the last one? I mean, there could be dozens of them in the forties, but if they don’t count, then Livia doesn’t count, right?

"Did I see a flash or not? I don't know!"At home, Dan tries to reassure his wife by telling her the happier aspects of Evan’s experiences and tells her that he’s planning on starting a notebook like him. But when Wifey is all about stopping the traveling with sedatives, Dan resists. He knows that he’s doing good and that this isn’t a curse, but a calling. She’s disappointed and you can tell that she’s reconsidering that house. Wifey reminds Dan that he promised that he would always come home. In a nice callback to the pilot to button up the series, Dan sits fully dressed in a chair while Wifey sleeps. As the edges start to get fuzzy, Dan speaks to her before he flashes away. Eyes open, staring at the space that Dan just left and the camera zooms in through her pupil, just like Dan twelve episodes ago.

And… scene.

It should have been better.So, so long to you Journeyman and Dan Vasser, you could have shown me interesting things if we didn’t spend so much time on your shrew of a wife and your suspicious brother and then your even less interesting brother’s babymama to be. Time travel is all about experiencing things in the past that you can no longer see and feel and altering the present in bizarre ways that you never imagined. It’s not just about seeing people in funny clothes, hearing music from the oldies station and wondering how people got along before the internet. And even when it is, Life on Mars has you beat. You seemed to have a hint of where you went wrong at the end there, but it was far too little too late. You pushed the audience away and squandered the goodwill of viewers like me that wanted to like you, wanted you to be entertaining. But don’t feel bad; other, better shows have come and gone in fewer episodes, but I seriously doubt that sending Jeff Zucker some Rice-A-Roni is going to do a damn thing. Jericho was a fluke. But enjoy the fact that you got to air all your eps due to the writers strike and better luck next time. Maybe in another, alternate timeline, Vassar figured out how to get some decent writers hired onto the show and Journeyman is the breakout hit of the strongest fall season in fifteen years.

Sigh.