Hey everyone!
I never did review Catevari the first time around, so I figured I’d help keep myself from going crazy from withdrawal by reviewing it THIS time around!
This review contains huge honkin’ spoilers for Catevari, and I did my best to make all comments and opinions my own original thoughts...but this review is being done several weeks after it aired, so lay me some slack. :-)
Overall:
This episode is all about trust; how everyone wants to be trusted, wants to trust others, and the dangers of letting yourself trust someone. It’s a powerful concept at this point in time considering the relationship Darien had with the Agency. He clearly doesn’t trust anyone there to look after his well-being, and for good reason. The question is, by the end of this episode DOES he start to trust the Keeper? Not yet...he knows the dangers of trusting someone who holds that much power over you. The Keeper says "Trust works both ways." and means that one person can’t trust another without it being returned. She trusted if she came to help Darien, he wouldn’t try and hurt her.
Of course Darien realizes that saying means more...if you allow yourself to trust the wrong person it can come back to hurt you. To emphasize his point look at what he does to Fogerty...Fogerty trusts him and is pulled into his embrace, thinking the two are going to die. But instead Darien uses that trust to destroy the bomb and then headbutt him into submission.
So at the end, when asking the Keeper how he knows he won’t end up like Fogerty, her answer of "Trust me." isn’t the most reassuring.
The Good:
-We get a little Santiana, JFK, Friedrich Nietzsche ("When you look into the Abyss the Abyss looks back at you") and a reference to the Grateful Dead (a song called "Crazy Fingers" lyrics by Robert Hunter and music by Jerry Garcia...look below for the full lyrics)
-It’s so nice to see Darien in decent clothing for once...I miss the good ol’ days when he could wear jeans, that really hot leather jacket, some normal T-shirts...in fact I really have no problems with his wardrobe at all in this eppy. Well except the straight jacket...but no one looks good in a straight jacket. :-)
-"What’s the best thing about government service? For me, it’s the health plan. You can get better, you can get worse, or you can just get with the program. This is the story of how Darien Fawkes got all three." I think this applies not just to this episode, but the whole show in general!
-My gut just does the twist from the look on Darien’s face when the Keeper first enters the padded room. Putting aside the freaky red eyes, he looks so sad and scared...he knows his time is up (both his sanity and his stalling with the Agency) and he’s gonna have to give in.
-As much as the Keeper may try to appeal to Darien about trust, let’s face all those manipulative facts: he’s trapped in that room, strapped in that straight jacket, and about 3 minutes away from going crazy by the time the Keeper finally walks in offering him some counteragent if he’ll agree to work for them. Didn’t really leave him much choice, did they?
-Nice little parallel; Fogerty takes Warren’s hand to lead him to his death...and at the end Darien takes Fogerty’s hand to lead him to his death.
-OK I know that when the Official said "He’s been in therapy" he ment Hobbes. But I can’t help but think that he could have been talking to and about both of them! Hobbes is on his new regimen of lithium and still touchy about it, and Darien’s just been "broken in" after 49 hours of some rather intense therapy. The Official looks at both of them when he says it too.
-"That’s freedom my friend. The right to shut up and do as you’re told. You don’t like it, move to Russia."...and then Darien’s look in response to that statement is just priceless!
-I love the look on Eberts face when the Official hands him the bloody blanket with the crazy fingers quote! Kind of a mixture between disgust, horror, and "Why in the world are you giving me this thing?!"
-"Don’t encourage him."
"I don’t want your encouragement."
-Hobbes shows some remarkable insights into Darien’s character after working with him for so short a time. I’m talking about him knowing that Darien wouldn’t have gone after Fogerty if he knew the guy was a fellow experiment.
-And so this episode begins Hobbes’ quest to keep tabs on an invisible Darien...and not really doing a very good job. :-)
-I’m guessing from this eppy forward Darien either checks his shoes for tracking devices, the Agency doesn’t try to place them on him anymore, or Claire just hides them better. Hmmm...perhaps that’s why he suddenly started wearing sneakers everywhere!
-"Could be worse."
"And it gets worse."
-I love how Darien tries to stay calm, cool, and almost uninterested in Fogerty’s Keeper, until Fogerty goes to scratch her. Then he practically jumps out of his chair with a "No!" to stop him!
-At least the Keeper tried to tranq. Fogerty first.
-So a week or so ago we were all talking about Darien being stuck in this metaphorical cage with the gland. Well at the very end of Cateveri, I think we see the cage door slam shut.
The Bad:
-Did we really need to have the whole premise of the show explained twice (once at the beginning of Catevari with Darien’s little flashback sequence thing, and once in the opening credits)?
-WHAT was with that nurse?!?!
-We can assume Darien got a shot after being let out of the padded cell (well duh). When he and Hobbes go on protection duty he says "If I stay invisible longer then 30 minutes you’ll have two psycho’s on your hands."...and after what looked to me like only about 30 seconds he’s obviously got a headache from oncoming madness. (Hobbes asks if he’s OK, he says no that they knew this would happen if he stayed invisible too long while rubbing his head) Had it been that many days since that first shot? He has 6 days of sanity without going invisible...in order to start having serious symptoms it must have been at least 5 days since begin let out of the padded room. It didn’t feel like it was a full 5 days.
-Look...floating babies, and cops who accept floating babies without question! :-)
-OK, here’s my BIG one...HOW did Fogerty know about the gland? He says to Darien "The geeks put a gland in your brain, you don’t think they’d realize you’d try to double cross them?" HOW did he know? He found out about Darien’s ability when attacking the Official, but only that he could go invisible. A gland was never mentioned, and I can’t think of how Fogerty would have access to any of the info on Darien and the gland.
The Crap Count:
-"Why don’t you cut the Three Days of the Condor crap." Darien, to the Official.
-"Aw crap." Darien, when he see’s the Official was scratched by Fogerty.
-"Did she pull that enigmatic crap on you?" Fogerty, about the Keeper.
The Nitpicky:
-After 49 hours locked in a padded cell, Darien is gonna have some stubble. That makes sense...what doesn’t make sense is that it disappears and re-appears quite a few times! Oh well...I’m glad it finally disappeared for good, I think he looks a lot better clean shaven.
-When the Official and the Keeper are watching Darien behind the 1-way glass, he puts his hand over a microphone before speaking. That indicates the Official was talking with Darien earlier...I wonder what he was saying.
-The Keeper says "mate" three times when first talking to Darien. And we never hear her say that word again...
-"Because I came in here knowing you could go insane and kill me." Uh Claire? Darien is strapped in a straight jacket, locked in a padded room, being watched by you and I’m betting at least a few people behind that 1-way glass, and you have a large pointy object in your hands. I highly doubt he can hurt you very much.
-As the doctors are wheeling Fogerty out of the room from playing chess, look who walks in front of the camera with his medication. It’s JERRY GARCIA!! No wonder Fogerty knew all those Grateful Dead lyrics! :-)
-When the Official gets the call about Fogerty, if you listen closely you can hear the voice on the phone ask for "Charles Borden".
-Look at the seatbelt behind Hobbes when he and Darien are driving out to the Agency Nuthouse...no wonder they aren’t wearing them, the thing is almost falling apart!
-Did the Official always have a wooden back door to his office? From here on everyone always enters and exits through the glass door.
-After going all red-eyed before taking Fogerty’s hand, Darien’s eyes are suddenly back to normal when he’s crouched over Fogerty’s body. Whoops...
-Was Hobbes given orders to kill Fogerty no matter what, or was he just trying to get a clear shot at Fogerty to keep him covered just in case?
Your rain falls like crazy fingers
Peals of fragile thunder
Keeping time
Recall the days that still are to come
Some sing blue
Hang your heart on laughing willow
Stray down to the water
Deep sea of love
Beneath the sweet calm face of the sea
Swift undertow
Life may be sweeter than this, I don't know
See how it feels in the end
Maybe Lady Lullaby sing plainly for you
Soft, strong, sweet and true
Cloud hands reaching from a rainbow
Tapping at the window
Touch your hair
So swift and bright, strange fingers of light
Float in air
Who can stop what must arrive now?
Something new is waiting
To be born
Dark as the night you're still by my side
Shine inside
Gone are the days we stopped to decide
Where we should go, we just ride
Gone are the broken eyes we saw through in dreams
Gone, both dream and lie
Life may be sweeter than this, I don't know
See how it feels in the end
Maybe Lady Lullaby sing plainly for you
Soft, strong, sweet and true
Midnight on a carousel ride
Reaching for the gold ring
Down inside
Never could reach it, just slips away
But I try
-Crazy Fingers, by the Grateful Dead
