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4.1 Broken Circle

Daddy Stillson: "She's a loose end, Greg. You can't have loose ends."

Sympathy for the devil? I never thought I could feel sympathy for Greg Stillson, but I sure did here. He appears to be a pawn in the Armageddon game. Who knew?

I was fairly certain that Daddy Stillson killed Rachel Caldwell, so that revelation wasn't a surprise. Greg losing it and committing patricide was a shock, though. All the flashbacks were sympathic toward Greg; the initial ones portrayed him as an abused child, and the "Long Branch, New Jersey, 1989" flashback hinted that Daddy had committed similar murders in the past, cleaning up Greg's "loose ends" in the form of pregnant girlfriends. Poor Greg (listen to me! "Poor Greg!") may never have had the chance to turn into a decent human being, and that's rather sad.

We finally learned how Stillson, Purdy, and the Armageddon connect: with Malcolm Janus, a new player, who was wearing an Illuminati pyramid type ring. Janus, who immediately stepped into Daddy Stillson's shoes and began knocking Greg around, mentioned that the group of citizens he represents have "access to several broadcast satellites." Didn't we see a satellite in Johnny's last Armageddon vision, the one where we saw the hand on the bed?

I find it intriguing that Johnny has chosen to defy his future self, throw away his cane, and operate in the dark. Let's face it, Johnny clearly didn't need that cane any more, anyway, and it was causing the Wey/Future Johnny visions that were supposedly killing him. But I did find it disconcerting to see him running around all over this place in this episode, jumping off bridges and stealing cabs. I wonder if the whole operation thing is off the plot table.

This felt like a season finale, not a premiere. Maybe because it was supposed to be. We should have seen this episode last summer, dammit. I feel cheated.

Bits and pieces:

-- The credits are the same, but the theme music has changed. I hate it. Maybe I should give it some time. Wait, no, I hate it.

-- With the exception of the intriguing future J.J., I'm not going to miss Christopher Wey or Future Johnny; it always felt a little "off" to me, like bad sci-fi.

-- Wasn't that pyramid also the trademark of the Argon Corporation? I'd better get out my season three DVDs.

-- Sarah is back to baking cookies, but maybe not for long. There were several pointed references to Johnny's past relationship with Sarah in this episode, and of course, Rebecca is now out of the picture.

-- Right after Greg killed his father, I thought, "You're a congressman, and you've just killed your father. There's a corpse on the floor. What do you do? What *do* you do?"

-- In the 1989 flashback, was Greg driving a Ford Pinto?

-- "Janus" is the name of the two-faced god. A little obvious symbolism here. And Janus' buddy from the U.S. Attorneys Office was named Pendragon. Some name, huh?

-- More biblical malarky, too. Purdy again compared Johnny to the apostle Paul, with the blindness and the epiphany and the light brighter than heaven, a reference to the approaching apocalypse.

-- The USA promo right before the episode was a hoot: "Psychic Johnny Smith is back with a vision of his current girlfriend's future. As a murderer. No wonder he's still single."

-- Sean Patrick Flanery's hair was a little too long for a congressman.

-- Bruce: "Watergate burglars. Anyone home?"

-- Walt: "Are you going to criticize my investigative methods, or are you going to touch my hand?"

-- Elliman: "That's assault." Walt hits him. "No, that's assault." People keep punching out Sonny Elliman, have you noticed? It lessens his oomph as a bad guy.

-- Bruce: "We still got time." Future Johnny: "There's still time." Gee, you think there's still time?

Three out of four stars,

Billie




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