Life on Mars: The Man Who Sold the World (Episode 107)

I never said I was perfect, Sam

Well, this is the last episode of Life on Mars U.S. for the next two months and what better way to leave it than with another episode of "Sam's Daddy issues."
Oh, btw U.S. writers - you suck for toning down the content of this episode because Dean Winters and porn is never a bad thing.

The show opens and we see a hand tattooed with a snake. We know who that is. Sam's dad is home from the road and he's brought a toy for his little boy.

Sam's father, played by OZ's, SVU's and The Sarah Connor Chronicles' Dean Winters, tries to give the spaceship to Sam, who prefers his own spaceship. It's a cute scene - Vic Tyler loves his son, but I like the set up for what will come later.

Pause to giggle again at the Rose Tyler name.

The tender scene is interrupted by a blurry second of a woman running through the woods in a red dress. Sam jerks awake and we see him, Ray, Chris and Gene in the car at an amusement park presumably on a stakeout.

Sam mentions the Amber alert system, which tells us that they're looking for child. A baby Andrew has been kidnapped and the cops watch as the child's father drops a suitcase of cash into a trash can.

A furtive looking fellow collects the suitcase and the cops are on the move - all set to the tune of '70s cops music. Actually, this entire sequence reminds me of the Beastie Boys' "Sabotage" video. They had the same hair as Ray.

Please note how Chris, Sam and Ray do all the running while Gene drives the car. His hip must have been hurting that day.

Sam is shocked to see it's Vic Tyler.

Back at the One-Twenty-Five, Annie comes over to do her therapist/exposition thing with Sam. He tells her that his father left town during his fourth birthday party.

I find it interesting the emphasis Annie puts on the sentence, "Do you know anything, Sam?" It feels like she's asking him about his entire existence, not just about the disappearance of his father.

Sam tells her about the woman in the red dress. He's convinced that it's his mother because he knows she has a red dress.

It's Sam's birthday on Saturday and Annie suggests they have a party for him, but Sam is too busy concocting another scenario that could explain why he's in 1973.

Annie clues in to the fact that the guy in the cell is Sam's dad.

Credits.

We come back to Vic's interrogation. This of course means a little abuse from Gene.

Vic comments on Sam's name being the same as his son. Ray and Gene play bad guys, which gives Chris a chance to play good cop. He appeals to Vic's paternal side and success! ok, we know Vic's lying if you've seen the original show, but work with it. Vic tells them that he owes the Pignato brothers money and this pick-up was a way of paying them off.

Sam immediately leaps on the explanation as he refuses to believe that his dad could be a bad guy.

Another OZ character gives us an explanation of the Pignato brothers and moves the plot along. Annie interrupts to let the men know that the Kreshpanes are in the squadroom. Sam gets permission from Gene to have Vic meet the devastated parents with the hope that maybe the face-to-face confrontation might make him more cooperative.

The parents appeal to Vic, who refuses to give them an answer. Sam pulls him aside and pulls the father card on Vic. Finally, Vic gives Sam a little something - a phone call is coming from the Pignatos at 2 p.m.

Once again, we hear about little Sam's birthday party.

At the Tylers' home Vic and Sam wait for the call. That means Sam watching Vic do the crossword while Vic confesses his minor gambling habit. Sam's enjoying the talk with his father. Then Vic says something minor that ends up being quite significant and I've used it for my opening quote.

He also tells Sam his crossword puzzle success. It's the bottom right-hand corner. Crack that and the rest of clues are easy. Hm, that would be the cluebus driving by.

That and he really likes Jimi Hendrix.

There's an awkward moment as they explain how Sam knows Vic's wife. When Vic goes off to see little Sam, Rose grills Sam about her husband and she cut through Sam's protective bullshit. He distracts her by talking about Sam's birthday present. She goes into the kitchen and Sam takes the alone time to prowl around the living room, sniff his father's jacket and  finds a basketball.

Vic interrupts Sam's imaginary game of super-hoops and points out that by ratting on the Pignato brothers, he's risking his family. 

Sam's still looking at his father with rose-coloured glasses (pun intended). It starts getting heavy emotionally so the guys play some ball.

Love the music in this episode - so awesome (The songs are Everything I own by Bread, Reeling in the Years by Steely Dan, Life on Mars by David Bowie and Spaceman by Harry Nilsson). The energetic moment is immediately cut short by the phone. It's 2 p.m.

Back at the 125, Vic is being wired up while Sam watches intently. Because it's American television and American television writers are juvenile, leads to gay jokes. Vic asks if Sam is light on his feet and we get an immediate "No!" from Sam. Granted the incest factor is just gross, so who can blame Sam for his vociferous reaction? Totally the opposite in the original if you read the fanfic.  Besides, it's a little too OZ.

It's an interesting parallel of Sam's two dads. That's totally not how I mean it. Apparently Irish men don't have hair on their chest. Dear writers, Jason O'Mara has hair on his chest Yes, I went back and looked. You fail.
See how Sam and Vic are dressed alike? That's the big dead trout of Sam's daddy issues whacking us on the head.

Vic tries to get Sam to promise that should he die, Sam will tell Rose. No pressure!

Oh, obligatory Wizard of Oz reference!

The cops stake out the bar as Ray makes the drop. We heard gunshots and the cops bust in to see a few dead men and one live guy bleeding to death. Sam sees the space invaders game and has a flashback of himself as a kid playing the game while his dad hung out with Uncle Butchie.

Sam busts into the office calling for Vic. Vic's been shot and as usual, has no information about anything.

On the plus side, Chris found baby Andrew, who is calm when he's Chris' arms.
Then he cries in Ray's arm in the squad room. He's probably scared of Ray's hair.

Vic's in a small room nursing a drink and bleeding through his bandages. Sam points out that now Vic can go to his son's birthday party. Vic seems caught up in his own thoughts and Sam has to prod him a few times before he gets an answer. It's so sad to see how hopeful Sam is about his father attending his birthday. It's his body language - look at how Sam's arms are tightly crossed across his chest.

Outside the room, the relieved Kreshpanes hold their son who came back to them with an unfamiliar rocketship. Oh, cluehammer time! Sam totally recognizes that rocketship!

As the cluehammer drops, Sam runs back to Vic, who has disappeared.

Sam barges into the Tyler's home. Rose, in her red dress is not impressed and bluntly tells Sam to stay out of their business.

Sam sees his mother in the red and realizing his dream is coming true, calls Annie to look after his mother and little Sam.

He returns to the bar and sees Butchie cleaning blood off the pool table.

Annie is the woods looking after Sam's mom while Sam sits in the car having parental issues and flashing back to the woman in the red dress being chased through the woods. This time though, we and Sam see more details. He sees his father in the flashback and just then "Life on Mars" by David Bowie swells up. Did this flashback really happen?

While Sam was having his issues, Vic disappears. Annie follows him into the woods. Sam stands on the edge of the woods. Just then, little Sam tugs on Sam's leather jacket. This action makes Sam look behind him. He sees his mother, in the red dress, at the table with Sam's birthday cake.

There's no realization! Come on! Where's the moment when Sam realizes exactly who is in the red dress in the woods?

Sam runs through the woods, suffering from the flashback, but NOT SEEING THE WOMAN RUN IN THE RED DRESS!

It's a sloppy set up. We don't even see Sam's realization that he did see his father beat Annie to death in the real 1973. But it wasn't the little Sam that saw that, it was the adult Sam. That's not Jason O'Mara's fault, it's Darnell Martin, the director's fault. He missed a prime opportunity for Sam to realize that he might actually be back in time. It also ruins a major arc moment. He's been having flashbacks of seeing a woman in a red dress running through the woods and we don't get to see him running after the woman? Again, epic fail on closing the circle.

Sam rushes into the clearing and sees Annie slumped on the ground as Vic attempts to strangle her.

Annie, being awesome and not the damsel in distress in this episode, whacks Vic in the nuts.

Sam is crushed as he finally accepts the fact that Vic is an opportunistic psychopath.

Vic still attempts to talk his way out the situation, but Sam refuses to listen anymore.

And just when you think the truth comes out, Vic tries one more sob story.

Sam unburdens his issues on his father. But you notice how Vic doesn't really pick up in the fact that Sam is his son? That begs the question - are the other characters not picking up on this because they're not real?

Just then, Uncle Butchie and some random guy come up behind Sam with guns.

Vic finally shows his true colours and in flashback we see how he manipulated the entire situation and Sam learns that Vic is the Pignato brothers.

They fight and yet still Sam is concerned about his dad. This leads to Vic holding the gun on Sam. Sam tries to appeal to Vic's better nature. Vic shots Sam twice or should I say Sam lets Vic shoot him?

Sam finally has all his blinders ripped off about his parents. It's never pleasant when you realize your parents are just humans, not the larger than life characters of your childhood. Sam's parents just happened to be a little more flawed than expected.

Sam's rushed to hospital. When asked the date, he doesn't answer. I think it's because he's no longer sure if he's actually in 1973 or if it's just one big coma-induced delusion.

Annie's in the hospital room because she needs to be there for Sam's sounding board. She also reassures Sam that he's doing good. Um, I don't think I like that because it makes him sound like a Mary Sue.

Sam possibly has worse birthdays than Spy. RANDOM SPY COMMENT:  Hells no!  Sammy had one bad birthday.  When he hits 31 bad birthdays in a row, he can call me.  Or he can call me now.  I'm not picky and he's hot.

Remember that cluebus about the crossword puzzle? Yeah, it just pulled up.

Sam leaves the hospital (with two gun shot wounds) and ransacks all his old cases. We see snapshots of Michael H from episode six, Casso from episode four and Fisher from episode three .

Sam starts writing down numbers and words that appear in the bottom right-hand corner of all the case files.

I guess Sam is also good at crosswords because after some scribbling, he comes up with an address he recognizes. I'm convinced he's high on painkillers because he rushes off to 35 Stewart Drive with no back-up. 35 Stewart Drive is conveniently down a deserted dirt road. He walks into the abandoned house and the phone rings. The deep voice on the other line reassures him that he's doing a good job, but he needs to go into the basement.

Dammit! Cliffhanger!

Hmm, so who's on the line? God? The doctor working on Sam? Could it be Clams? We'll have to wait and see.

See you in January when we get four more episodes - which is still not a full season. So if you want more episodes? Send Mars Bars to ABC and if you're a fan of the original, make sure they're deep fried.

P.S. Life on Mars is up for a People's Choice Award. If you eligible to vote, go and vote! Maybe winning will give us more episodes.

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