Richard Shepherd meets with Rose – who is wearing Amy’s
body (that would be Jack’s wife) – to report Frank is dead (but not that he
killed him) and the other Shepherds are looking for the killer (except him,
obviously). Richard wants to continue Frank’s task, whatever that was, because
of the history he shared with Amy (he did?) though not, apparently with Rose
(wait, is Amy the reincarnator? Or Rose? Or Both?). Richard also apologises for
taking so long to “trigger” Rose.
This job involves bringing someone back from the dead
which is forbidden by a group called Reverti and if she’s caught they’ll be
killed and not resurrected; especially tricky since Amy/Rose is due to become
one of the 9 (whoever they are – bosses of the organisation I infer – I think
they are the Reverti). She gives Richard the name and he goes to confirm
whoever this guy is – and then he’ll need the trigger which Amy/Rose has. And
no, we don’t get to see the name
Over to Jack (damn it, he’s the only one with no answers)
who calls Amy (who he just saw in Roses’s room) to say how much he misses her
and to check where she is – she lies of course. Jack goes and grabs his gun –
having a flashback to his ill-defined past as a policeman in which he killed
someone; expanded now to show one of them was completely helpless when Jack
finished him off. He charges through the house ransacking the place to find
lots of medication (which I’m guessing is fertility medication because it also
comes with a flashback to Amy bloodstained that we’ve seen before which we can
pretty much confirm is a miscarriage). After tearing throw her mail he finds
that she’s preparing to divorce him.
He then breaks into his wife’s safe and pulls out a Que
Reverti book – one of those books all the returned get with a number 9 on the
cover (we’ve seen Marcus/Madison with the same book). The book is written in
several languages; he also finds a box inside which is a pen, a funnel, a coin
and nail polish. Because RANDOM.
He stops when he hears someone creeping outside. We then
have a ridiculous amount of time with him pulling his gun, having flashbacks
and being all tense and dramatic for ages before we see it’s the neighbours
checking up on what they thought was an empty house. The neighbours are
concerned and a little creepy. They want to tell Jack how Amy has moved on
(looking ultra creepy while doing so). Yes they’re part of the creepy Reverti
club and because she really liked Jack they’re going to point a gun at him and
make him leave with whatever he can carry. Yeah, feel the love.
Over to Richard Shepherd at a Chinese restaurant who
keeps trying to trigger one of the waiters, Peter (jazz is involved, because
jazz is a thing, it seems). He then calls Amy/Rose to confirm “it’s him” which
makes Amy very happy.
Back to Jack who, after a brief struggle, takes the guns
off the neighbours and demands answers. Which is when Amy magically appears and
tells them to go home. Amy tells Jack that Amy is gone (or very nearly so) –
she’s confident that her telling him this personally will make it all so very
clear. Uh-huh. He asks her questions about all that he’s seen and she just
seems willing to walk off and not answer any questions until Jack pulls out the
random objects from the box. Each one is a symbol of one of Amy/Rose’s old
lives; each one is a trigger. She tells the story of each one, from Russia to
Italy to India and to her time as the girlfriend of Bix Biederbeck (back to
jazz again) her language and accent changing each time.
Jack doubts all of it, for obvious reasons, so Rose turns to seduction (with the creepy idea that he could be, basically, rougher with Rose than with Amy). He kisses her and she slaps him – and he launches his theory – that she’s had a breakdown after the miscarriage - Rose claims she killed the baby because she didn’t want it and to get rid of Amy, which worked. Jack attacks her, strangling her; he lets go as she gasps and when she demands her triggers back, Jack drops them on the floor.
Jack mopes and Rose talks about Jack, Amy and the baby
meeting in another life – and leaves behind her wedding ring so Jack can use it
as a trigger for his next life.
Alone, Jack mopes and flashbacks about the miscarriage
and the aftermath when Amy had the body cremated before talking to him – Jack realises
that she disposed of the body herself. This scene is ridiculously long.
Over to the Madison/Marcus storyline – Madison’s parents
arrive at the house she called from and find it empty – except for the man she
murdered. The police are called in, including a detective who recognises the
handiwork of Marcus Fox who he had hoped was dead. Madison’s mother treats us
to a very odd monologue on the joys of pregnancy and motherhood to serve as a
convoluted backdrop to Jack digging up the miscarried baby’s grave – and digging
up the body.
Over to Richard and Amy/Rose and Richard warning Rose
they risk being chucked out of the group and losing their immortality in the
process. Richard can’t talk her out of the whole risking everything so he takes
her to Peter’s flat to use a trigger on him and Rose then launches into how
amazing it is to resurrect to a sceptical and confused Peter – or Bix as he is
now - who hasn’t been prepared like the Reverti are so is likely going to be
pretty lost and confused for a while. I think Rose is going to be very
disappointed when it comes to her lost love.
Y’know instead of all the episodes of tension we could
have had a little more explanation rather than it all been dumped here. And it
was dumped, in vast chunks of exposition and I’m still not entirely sure where
everything fits, exactly. And I think they’ve missed a big opportunity to
develop the individual returned (Reverti?), their society and their culture and
even what it does to them (like their casualness about killing – after all if
there’s no death why care about murder) instead we’ve been wandering around
trying to hint at a mystery when we’ve all known the vague outline of it from
the very beginning – but the details have been left blank. I’m wondering if
that is all being reserved for a second season.
But it does mean all of Jack’s epic epic angst and moping
frustrates me. Because it may be epic, it may be incredibly acted but it’s all
so mundane compared to the supernatural element we continually skim over
without any real depth.
It’s just all been so badly done – trying to be
mysterious when we’ve kind of known the main answers from the beginning while
failing to add any details to the big mystery that would actually give us something
to latch on to. I also kind of hate Jack and his suspicion. Now does Jack have
lots of reason to be suspicious and confused by Amy? Kind of, yes. But he only
has that suspicion because he grossly overreacted in the first place. And even
with what’s going on, him being possessive and even violent has always been
there. Frankly, woo-woo aside, I’d want to run for the hills if I were Amy
Why is Rose doing this? Why not maintain the pretence of
being Amy and just leave Jack? Instead she drops in and says “hey, I’m Rose.
WOOOOOOO!” like that’s going to be an easier way to extract her old lives?
Almost from the beginning Rose has been throwing hooks and breadcrumbs at Jack
for no reason so his suspicion and possessiveness would ensure he got on the
trail.
