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JOHN DOE
Episode 1.03 "Past Imperfect"
Written by Russel Friend & Garrett Lerner
Directed by Bill Norton
Guest Stars: Anne Betancourt (Vanessa), Louise Grant (Agnes), Peter Breck (Leverton), Christopher Heyerdahl (Dr. Hillman)
Air Date: 10/18/02
I can go for this sort of setup. "Past Imperfect" manages to place the murder plot in the background so that it serves the mystery that is John Doe. The show still has some glitches, of course, but nothing's perfect. Still, they can do with some refinement here and there to tighten things up.
We start of with a quick lesson in how John keeps himself in the money. We revisit the stock broker from the pilot, where John turns on that creepy juice he calls a personality. After a lengthy explanation, John get his broker to buy some pork belly futures. He snags just under $150,000, so we know he's going to have a nice week since he dumps most cash into his "recreating" hobbies. For a guy who's so self-conscious about his amnesia that he keeps it a secret from his friends, he really seems to enjoy profiting from his powers. I guess that makes him human.
After we leave the broker, we see my least favorite character on this show to date. Karen is taking personal calls at John's home and exposits all over the place that she doesn't know anything about her new boss. She forces her way into his private office and gets creeped out by only God knows what. I mean, the guy has some papers on the wall and some pictures and this is shocking? Whatever. Instead of firing her ass like anyone else would, John just tries to explain himself as best he can. She flees the scene, and John is left all sad. Poor John. How's a creepy, obsessive-compulsive to get any action with his nubile assistant if he's constantly showing off his chest brand? Again, poor John.
The mystery subplot this week is a 34 year old murder that John is mysteriously implicated in. Some construction workers find a woman's corpse in a drum after digging up a parking lot. It's the maid of a man named Steven Prescott. When they go to check out the man's DMV photo, he looks an awful lot like John. Now, as I recall, the DMV didn't always have photo ID's, so I'm a little perplexed about that photo surviving. Did they actually have photos on their licenses back then? A minor point. I'm just glad the cops don't actually suspect Doe, but they do think he's somehow tied to the killer.
This bit of news makes Karen all the more idiotic, as she suggests repeatedly that John might be a time traveler. A college physicist insists that John get an MRI to see if there are any signs of time travel. Like an MRI can really pick stuff like that up. They go through a lot of trouble to make the theory sound credible, but even John thinks it's bullshit, and he's full of that. I guess they can smell their own. During the MRI John has another memory flash pretty similar to the first one from two weeks ago. He also finds that his brand has some metal in it, and that he's claustrophobic. He seemed pretty happy about the phobia, though. The metal? Not so much.
In summation, John isn't Prescott, but he might be his son. That's what they tell us, at least. Prescott killed his maid after she gave birth to their love child. An aged and decrepit Prescott flees, only to be blown sky high after crashing into a propane tank or something. I was distracted by the fact that they didn't have John chasing him down on one of those Segwayä motor scooters or maybe a blimp. You mean we have to live with a conventional chase scene? I suppose it isn't conventional when John's providing a traffic play by play.
One thing I'll give this show, they do know how to build on the mystery without giving too much away. What I like about it is the way they introduce both sci-fi and mundane explanations at the same time, leaving the viewer to interpret themselves. John could be a time traveler, or he could just be the bastard son of a murderer. Who knows? Now, what I don't like is pretty much just Karen. She was irritating as all hell this week, and she wasn't exactly endearing before. Maybe scale her role back a bit, or give her a more rounded character. John should have fired her ass just for breaking into his office like that and getting all creeped out. Little to no Digger is also a plus. They do give Frank a bit more to do, but I like Frank so that's okay. "Past Imperfect" gets:
Episode Rating: 7 out of 10
- Steven Dougherty loves pork bellies, especially with mayonnaise and wheat bread.
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