Hey everyone!
Today I review Ralph, the last of the episodes of IM that I hadn’t reviewed the first time around. Except the Pilot, but I don’t think at this point I could review that...a review of that eppy would be spoiled by knowledge of so many episodes to come. So enjoy!
As always, this contains huge honkin’ spoilers for Ralph, and all idea are my own.
Overall:
This episode should have been a happy ending. The girl was saved, and is even on the road to recovery and new friendship by the end, the bad guy was caught, the case was all wrapped up and we won. Right?
Of course it’s hard to cheer the victory when the hero has such a hard time and looses so much to win. Since this is back before relations between Darien and the rest of the Agency warmed up a bit, we’re still treated to full snarky Keeper, full manipulative Official, and not yet a friend just a partner Hobbes. So when Jessica says "I’m your only friend." she doesn’t just have a point, she’s nailed it. Here’s the first person who’s come along in Darien’s life since he had a brain addition who see’s him and his ability as more then just a tool to be used and exploited, and truly just hands off her friendship to him. Sadly she’s only eight, so we all knew (and Darien I’m sure knew) this new friendship wouldn’t last. And when she lets go, Darien’s only consolation is that she needed to give up her invisible friend to grow up....he said she’d catch up, and by the end of the episode she did grow up a bit, loosing some of that innocence and creativity in the process.
The Good:
-No quote, but a bit about Sherlock Holmes. "For me, it was elementary." Guess Darien ment that figuratively AND literally eh? :-)
-OK I’ll just get this out of the way now. The actress who played Jessica was outstanding! Sometimes child actors can overact a bit, or be rather still and unnatural. This girl was perfect...so big honkin’ cudo’s to her!
-...and on top of that both the girl and VV did an excellent job in the scenes they had together. This episode was very well written, and one of my favorites, but it wouldn’t have been half as good if the scenes between Darien and Jessica weren’t as wonderful and touching as they were! In fact, every single one of my "Great Scenes" involve them :-)
-Claire was much more of a smart ass back then wasn’t she? What with all the snarky comments to Darien about being endangered, breaking himself so soon, the gland treating him like a baby...
-"Why are we here?"
"Well the Buddhists would say life is cyclical..."
"OK let me re-phrase that."
-Say hello to Jones, the worlds most smug a-hole FBI agent. It wasn’t just that he was making fun of Hobbes that got my goat, it was his snobbish attitude that made me wish he had stepped over the Do Not Cross line, and cheer when Hobbes got to headbutt him at the end!
-They had a file on Jessica when she was only 8? And with fingerprints and everything!!
-I love how giddy the Official is as he watches Darien realize his assignment with Jessica. You could just see him enjoying the irony of it all!
-Great Scene 1: Darien introduces "outer-ear Ralph" to Jessica, has problems when snooping in her room, and then bolts headless out the window. Not only is this scene just wonderfully acted, has great music, some cute moments, and Darien’s conscious making another appearance (his problems with poking around in a young girls room)...but this is the scene with the infamous Triple Crap! (see the Crap Count for more) :-)
-You know I never would have pictured Hobbes as Harvey, the seven foot tall invisible rabbit. :-)
-I’ve speculated that Darien isn’t as concerned about his own safety as he is about anyone else he considers worth being saved. Jessica certainly falls under that Willing To Risk My Life And My Sanity For You category. He’s ready and willing to run away from the case because he feels awful about "screwing with a traumatized kid." until Hobbes is assigned to interrogate her...and later even the threat of Quicksilver Madness won’t stop him from going to make sure she’s OK, but the threat of that madness putting Jessica at risk stops him dead in his tracks. Our sarcastic thief has a noble streak a mile wide!
-Apparently after this episode Claire gets much better at having counteragent around when Darien is on a mission. I don’t think she’s ever been without it for 48 hours while he’s on a mission after this, and for good reason!
-Great Scene #2: Darien returns to talk with Jessica and gets some rather good pictures to take home. I especially love how he gently encourages Jessica to talk to the therapist with the "dumb puppet" because it could help.
-"Ralph, you grew up!"
"Yea, well you’ll catch up."
-Hobbes doesn’t get to do much in this episode besides show off his considerable agent talents and snip at Jones, but what he does he does really well! He triangulates the snipers camouflage from some vague kids pictures, finds the strip off the Gilly suit, does all the "blue collar detective work", and uses the crack/bang from the rifle to point out where the sniper is. For Hobbes, this episode *is* a happy ending...he helps save the witness, gets the bad guy, and gets one up on one of his biggest critics from the FBI.
-"And you knew to look for this how?"
"Because I’m me."...You know, that’s a rather accurate
description for just about all of Hobbes actions. Why did he do it? Because he’s
Hobbes! :-)
-One brief scene with "Ralph" and Jessica has a painting of him DOWN! :-)
-Great Scene #3: Darien visits Jessica in the hospital. Didn’t we all wish at some point in our lives we could be invisible? It’s gutwrenching to see how Darien want’s to stay and keep Jessica company and make her feel better, but has the little clock ticking away in his head that says ever few seconds "Your going to go insane!"
-In the Little Things That Count category, you can spot when the QSM headache starts. Right after leaving Jessica’s hospital room, when he’s grabbed by Jones and the FBI, Darien starts rubbing his head while Jones is rambling on about the case being off-limits. Makes sense, since not long afterwards those other nasty symptoms start popping up.
-More Little Things That Count, ya gotta love how at the end of Jessica’s note to her mom she writes "Sorry So Sloppy." That’s classic little kid.
-Watch how freaked Darien looks when Hobbes first attacks Jones and pulls the gun on the FBI. For a few moments Darien has no idea what to do or what’s going to happen...
-...Hobbes, however, looks all cool, calm and collected. From the moment Jones grabs him to his "Oh well that hurt!" he is probably the most in-control person there!...
-...and then continues to stay calm and in control as Darien quickly begins to spiral down the quicksilver drain. He does take a moment to flinch in shock when Darien snarls at him to back off and runs after the sniper.
-And my vote for the Best Line Delivery of the episode is a tie between Darien’s reply to "What are you?" "I’m Ralph." *shudder*...and Jessica’s heartbreaking, on the verge of tears "Bye Ralph" as she hands off the key to Darien.
-So Claire would be Dr. Jekyll, the scientist in control of her emotions desperately trying to keep domination over Mr. Hyde, or the emotional and sometimes insane Darien.
-Well no wonder Claire asks if Darien is feeling better in that last scene...the poor guy just got shot twice and went insane!
The Bad:
-So were all these guards around the Very Important People at the beginning either 3 feet or 2 miles away? How could they miss Jessica?!
-When Anders starts shooting at Jessica at the end, I could swear you can’t even see her when he begins, he just fires on the rock formation! For a sharp-shooter, he’s not very good.
The Crap Count:
-"When are you going to cut the crap?" Darien, to the Official about the cover of the dead bird.
-(this counts as 3, because it is the Infamous Triple Crap!) "Oh crap....oh crap oh crap I can’t do it I can’t quicksilver!" Darien, when Jessica is about to come back.
The Nitpicky:
-Did anyone else giggle and think of the Pilot episode whenever the commercials for Mimic came on? What with Mira Sorvino and talk about a "biological counteragent"?
-OK so was that a real Peregrine Falcon? And what are the chances of seeing 2 in the same park days apart from each other?
-"We protect him, just like we protect you." Badly apparently.
-Did anyone else think the sound FX dubbed in for the key Jessica had was very very loud?
-You know, under different circumstances, I’d say it was a bad idea to give a creative 8 year old permission to paint all over your face. :-)
-When we’re in InvisibleDarienVision as he goes to get Jessica just before the sniper shoots him, the height is just a bit off...the camera is about eye level with Jessica when Darien comes running up, even though he’s about three time’s her height! :-)
-In the hospital room, when Jessica grabs Darien’s arm to try and stop him from leaving, she grabs the arm that was just shot. Oh, ouch...Jessica dear, don’t pull there!
-I have a very vivid memory from the first time I saw this episode...when Darien wakes up from being "shot" and discovers he’s alive I remember clearly blurting out "So the gland made him bullet proof as well?!"
-So if you are a guest villain on IM you need to learn how to take an invisible punch :-)
-OK it’s a safe bet that Darien was teetering on the edge of madness when he bolted from Jessica at the end. Since Hobbes appeared busy with Anders and sticking it to Jones (go Hobbes! :-) ) what happened after the scene cut away to commercial? How did he get to the Agency in time? I really hope he didn’t try to drive himself...talk about road rage!
-Sometimes I have something called Added Dialogue, where I make a joke about dialogue I think should have been added to the show. This week however we have Lines That Will Never Happen: Jessica, when saying goodbye to Darien at the end, "I’m going into the 3rd grade next year...and...well my mom said...and...well frankly Ralph you scared the crap out of me yesterday!"
"Most of the women in my life leave me. The difference is to them I was a man...but to her I was magic. How do you say goodbye to that?" -Darien
...who wishes she had an invisible friend like Darien/Ralph
