Sunday, June 15, 2014

The Invisible Man 1.12 - Reunion

Plot: We find Darien in a reflective mood as the episode starts, looking over photos of him and his brother. We learn their parents died when he and Kevin were children, and they went to live with their Aunt Celia and Uncle Peter. This sad piano music accompanied trip down Memory Lane is interrupted by a call from the old family physician, Dr. Anthony, who tells him Kevin has been in an accident. Kevin, who died in the first episode.

Darien lies to the Official, giving him some line about his aunt being sick, and refuses offers of aid from Hobbes and Claire. Upon reaching Dr. Anthony's office, he's told Kevin fell down some stairs, but should be fine. By the time they reach his room, he's gone, having already called a cab. Fawkes visits the cab company, but his attempt to use his badge fails when the owner notices it's from Fish & Game. So he lets the air out of their taxis' tires and uses the distraction to go through their log book, which leads to the retirement home where Aunt Celia lives. She's happy to see Darien, and doesn't ask how he got out of prison. As they talk, Kevin, no sporting a manly beard, walks in. He and Darien see each other, and Kevin bolts. Fawkes pursues, but is almost hit by a truck, which hits a cop car instead, and the cop arrests him. Again the badge fails to save him, and so does the fact he knows the sheriff from their hellraising days. So Fawkes uses chow time to sneak out, only to get busted by Hobbes, who came to check after Fawkes' name was checked by the police computers. This leads to an amusing argument where we see things either from Hobbes' perspective - through his thermal goggles - or Fawkes' - through his Quicksilver vision. Either way, Fawkes can't shake him, so Hobbes is with him on the case.

In search of clues, they travel to Darien's old home, and while they don't find anyone, they do find evidence of recent habitation, and someone turned his uncle's lab upside-down looking for something. Darien can't determine what they were looking for, but he does find an old photo. It has 3 people in it: Uncle Peter, Dr. Anthony, and the Official. Dun-dun-dunnnnnnnn! Dr. Anthony isn't terribly helpful, fearing vague reprisals. Darien is now convinced Kevin survived, and the Official is hiding him. Hobbes isn't sure about all this, but opts to stand with his partner. They find a hair on the pillow, juke the local cops with some nonsense about parapsychology, and head off to confront the Official. Back at the office, Claire confirms the hair belonged to Kevin, the Official explains that Uncle Peter's work was the early stages of the gland, and it was through Peter he met Kevin who took that early work to fruition. But, he insists Kevin is dead, and they agree to dig him up.

The grave is empty.

Fawkes returns to the old home, and stews over what he believed to be Kevin's death. Then he gets a call from Kevin, asking to meet where they used to go, which turns out to be an old cabin in the woods. Darien rushes in, and finds no Kevin. He does find three books that were missing from the house, and inside, are Uncle Peter's notes. Also inside by this point is Arnaud, somehow alive after last being seen standing in the midst of at least five live grenades. Arnaud faked the whole thing to try and find Kevin's notes. Used a voice modifier, dug up and moved the body, all of it. Arnaud has a gun, but Darien has Hobbes, who also has a gun. But Arnaud also has the guy who was playing Kevin, and he has a gun. There's some fighting, Darien pursues Arnaud, who realizes he won't escape running blind through the woods. So he gives Fawkes a choice: stop Arnaud, or save the notes as he throws them in the stream. Darien opts for the notes, but it's no good, because from them, Claire could only devise how to make a new gland, not remove one. She asks Darien if he'd like to get dinner, but he declines to attend Kevin's reburial, though he ends up doing the burying himself. And Hobbes shows up to help. Awwww.

Quote of the Episode: Hobbes - 'I think you are pulling up to Paranoia Plaza, and for me to think that you have got to be nuts.'

The "oh crap" count: 1 (17 overall)

Who's getting quoted this week? Charles Schulz, who through Linus opined that sisters are the crabgrass of life, which Darien figures applies to brothers. Also PJ O'Rourke, who noted that as you get older, you find the things that matter are the things your parents told you would matter. What a horrifying revelation.

Times Darien Goes Into Quicksilver Madness: 0 (5 overall). Pretty surprising considering how much he used it. The cab company, escaping jail, tricking the cops, chasing Arnaud.

Still Fish & Game.

Other: I really should have done a "Nearly hit by cars" count for this series. That's three in just the last two episodes.

I notice that Darien was absent from the photo taken at Kevin's graduation. I suppose he could have been taking the photo, but it seems more likely he was in jail at the time. I also noted that when he visited Celia, she motioned for him to sit down next to her, and Darien took a chair diagonal from her. Keeping a little distance.

Love that all the people in this show actually read what's on the badge, rather than accepting it at face value. Pity nobody respects Fish & Game, though. Also love that when Darien went into the Official's office to get leave to deal with the "family illness", he has his fingers crossed behind his back. One wonders if he'd actually try to use that as an excuse if they called him on his behavior later. Wouldn't put it past him, he still likes to take the easy path, at least as he defines easy. In this case, it's easier to lie and go lone wolf than explain he received a call from a family friend telling him his brother's alive and well.

Celia and Peter must have been loaded. That's a pretty nice retirement place she's living in, yet she hasn't sold the home or the old cabin. The home even still has electricity! Maybe it's some pension or life insurance Kevin set up for them? Not sure who else he'd leave the money to. Darien likely wouldn't have accepted it, there's no sign Kevin had a special someone.

Last week's episode ended with Fawkes saying he wouldn't end up like Simon Cole because he had all his friends at the Agency. This seemed a little strange since the episode started with them being extremely hostile and assuming Darien beat the hell out of the Fat Man. Not very friendly at all. This episode is actually a much better support for that argument, though it demonstrates Fawkes' continuing trust issues. Hobbes offers to go with him for this "family illness", and Claire offers to contact the doctors, see if perhaps she can be of assistance. The Official doesn't even hesitate to agree to give him compassionate leave. Once Hobbes shows up to investigate, he's on board with helping. Even when he thinks it sounds crazy, even when Darien's spoiling for a showdown with the Official, Hobbes sides with him. Claire does the DNA test with no apparent hesitation, the Official seems completely willing to dig up Kevin to prove Fawkes is nuts. Granted, he's not doing the digging, and they did it secretly at night, but he seemed quite willing to go along with it to try and calm Fawkes down. Maybe he's worried Darien will go invisible and beat the hell out of him again.

Or he's afraid someone pulled a fast one on him. He likes to joke about how Darien vastly overrates the Official's abilities, but the Fat Man definitely thinks he's pretty slick. That, "aw shucks, I'm just a humble public servant" stuff is a facade. He's got more than a bit of Amanda Waller in him. The idea that someone may have rescued Kevin and recruited him to their side, or that perhaps Kevin orchestrated the whole thing himself would no doubt be galling to him. And he was visibly shaken when the coffin was empty. He knew he had nothing to do with it, so who did? And he didn't know, which might have been the worst part of all.

And in related news, Arnaud is back! Yay! Arnaud might be one of my favorite fictional villains ever, up there with Arcade. Dr. Doom, and Gilroy from Season 3 of Burn Notice. It's been awhile since I'd watched these episode, so I'd forgotten he had an accomplice. I thought Arnaud was passing himself off as Kevin, which would have been impressive given the considerably different shapes of their heads. It is a strange plan, though. I can't tell whether drawing Darien in was always part of it, or an audible Arnaud called halfway through. Was he getting nowhere on other avenues and coerced Dr. Anthony, or did his lackey actually injure himself and once they learned Darien had been contacted, Arnaud just rolled with it? I'm guessing the former, but man, that's a lot of trouble. Kind of wished they hadn't done the flashbacks to Kevin's death, where they prominently feature Arnaud, there at the end. It maybe tipped the hand too much, but I guess we hadn't seen Arnaud since the Pilot, so they wanted newcomers to have some idea who he was.

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