Holy cow. Where has this
show been for the past month or so? The
Tomorrow People has been sort of stumbling along, having the occasional
cute moment along with a lot of really dreary melodrama. But last night’s
episode packed a decent punch, and I suddenly don’t hate any of these
characters. What’s up?
Spoilers ahead…
Part of what’s up is that this show finally feels like it’s
about a war. The basic premise of Tomorrow
People, after all, is that the Alphas/X-Men/whatevers are a new species, in
a secret war with the organization known as Ultra, which wants to wipe us out. The
main character, Stephen, is a double agent, working for Ultra while also secretly
helping the Tomorrow People — an arrangement which seems about as doable as
juggling cats.
So in last night’s episode, a lot more of the telekinetic
shit hit the telepathic fan, and the stakes suddenly felt real. Or at least,
real-ish.
The basic plot is pretty simple: Stephen gets invited to
meet the mysterious senior partner of Ultra, who can boss Jedikiah around and
ordered the death of Stephen’s dad. And then Stephen is given a final test of
“fidelity”: Watching Ultra massacre his friends in the Tomorrow
People with gratifyingly non-metaphorical machine guns. And meanwhile, the
Tomorrow People set themselves up for that massacre by going out partying in
spite of John’s warnings that Ultra is not screwing around here.
Oh, and Cara finds out that John is the only Tomorrow Person
who can kill — something he’s inordinately ashamed of, even though it saved
her life. And Astrid finds out that Stephen is up to his neck in crap, and
witnesses his superpowers in action first-hand, in an effective, emotional scene.
In general, the characters are feeling a lot more real, and
their relationships have a lot more oomph than they did a while ago. Also, this
episode gets to the heart of some of the contradictions the show’s been playing
with since the beginning.
In particular, Stephen’s “double agent” status
causes all sorts of problems this time around, which feel plausible. He’s
having a harder and harder time convincing anybody at Ultra that he’s actually
on their side, and the fact that every mission he’s involved with gets borked
has not gone unnoticed. This is what leads to him meeting (sort of) the secret
Ultra honcho, who’s actually an Alpha himself and who mind-probes Stephen with
what appears to be scary effectiveness.
Meanwhile, Stephen’s ability to live at home with his mom
and brother, and go to school with Astrid, cause the other Tomorrow People to
question why the “chosen one” (heh) gets to live in the real world
while they all cower underground. Kurt, the weaselly bank robber from a few
weeks ago, gets his chops busted for visiting his mom, and turns this into being
about John’s shitty leadership. To make matters worse, Cara feels as though
they’re just surviving instead of living, and maybe her relationship with John
is only based on them living in fear together. She challenges John to a
stickfight, because this is the CW and we need shirtlessness.
In the end, the two stories dovetail pretty nicely, as
Stephen’s test of “fidelity” (and you gotta love Jedikiah’s
explanation of why “fidelity” is better than “loyalty”) is
the same as the John’s total and utter vindication. And all at once, this feels
a bit more like a war and less like a pout-off.
All of the characters are more interesting this time out.
Astrid feels like a real person, who cares about Stephen, instead of the
paranoid wacko we saw a couple weeks ago. John is giving us less puppy-dog and
more “guy who makes the hard decisions.” Cara is “kind of a
badass,” even though she has to tell us that in those exact words. I
believe in these relationships — I even sort of believe that Jedikiah cares
about Stephen, beyond wanting to use him.
Not saying that Tomorrow
People has suddenly become the best show on TV or anything — but I was
actually pretty thrilled by this episode. To some extent, it’s that thing where
you have a headache that lasts a whole day, and it’s suddenly gone, and the
absence of that stabbing pain in your temple is like the sweetest joy ever. But
it’s also a sense that this is becoming a show with characters I care about,
and some themes I’m interested in. More of this, please.
