Journeyman: The Year of the Rabbit

By Heather Cee –

Kevin McKidd Okay, there’s something I need to get off my chest: how is it permissible to leave a thrice-victimized woman in the arms of the man who once stalked her? Because I’m still trying to wrap my brain around this waving red flag of NO, which is less a lapse in Dan’s judgement than some sort of ass-backwards attempt at tying off loose ends in a plotline that was barely riding shotgun to the major Drama unfolding this week. But this seems like a no-brainer to me: man stalks woman, man is physically combative with woman (and Dan), man somehow ends up a shoulder to cry on when woman is almost killed.

What the hell, Journeyman?

I understand the soul-in-distress was hardly the focus this week, but the thematic and emotional parallels between those Dan is supposed to help and what is happening in his personal life aren’t exactly subtle. Girl seeks out the father she never knew, Katie and Dan discuss a second child; Dan helps gambling addict with a second chance at life, Dan and his editor drag up their own addiction demons. So when a woman is stalked by her ex-boyfriend, meets and marries someone else who is swindling her savings in a phony company, husband tries to kill her, and Dan shows up with stalker-ex-boyfriend – who happens to be a cop – and she’s happy to see him? What, a guy who grabs and yells at her in public and stalks her is comparatively decent to the guy who tries to put a bullet in her head? And this ties into problems between Katie and Dan how?

Add onto this the actual time-changing factors: Dan’s initial meeting with Melissa Waters and ex-boyfriend Greg’s fist happens in a bar, where Melissa mistakes him for her blind date and then, embarrassed at her mistake, tries to leave. Greg confronts her, grabs her, and when Dan tries to intervene he receives a punch in the kisser.

On the next bounce-back, Dan witnesses Melissa’s current husband William purchasing a gun in an alley. When Dan runs into Melissa, he warns her about the gun, which she quickly brushes off as being purchased for her protection. As she leaves, Dan notices Greg lurking nearby in his car, and, when confronted, he flashes a badge and says he’s “working.” Back in the present, Dan learns Melissa was allegedly killed by Greg, the cop. When Dan calls Jack-Ass, brother cop, to confirm, he learns that Greg was charged with the murder but acquitted due to insufficient evidence.

Next bounce-back: Dan arrives just in time to save Melissa from being murdered by her husband. He wrestles the gun away from William and tells Melissa to run. Back in the present, the stories on Melissa change from her being murdered by her ex-boyfriend to being charged with the murder of her husband.

Still with me? I promise there’s a point to the minutiae.

On the final bounce back in time, Dan bumps into Officer Greg the Stalker, tells him Melissa is about to kill her husband, and the two dash up the stairs just in time to see Melissa shoot her husband William in self-defense. Dan, who still has the gun he took from William in their previous encounter, plants the gun in the dead man’s hand, tells Melissa and Greg he can’t be a witness (obviously), and then disappears back into the ether. The end. Nope, not even a modern timeline follow-up.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but is there anything in the above sequence of events that validates Dan’s decision to leave Melissa in the company of the man who’s been stalking her for years? Or is it simply a decision between the lesser of two evils? Yes, Dan’s time to work in the lives of those he’s supposed to save is limited. He has to think on his feet. But the stalker ex-boyfriend is his cavalry? Really? So he’s a cop, and in another timeline is probably framed for Melissa’s murder – but neither of these facts changes a thing. Perhaps I could swallow this if Dan’s intervention in the timeline not only altered Melissa’s fate but the personality and/or motivations of Greg as well. But Greg is “conveniently” around Melissa when Dan is, over the course of years, which tells me he’s still watching and following her. When he tells Dan he’s “working,” is that a hint to his being aware of the shady nature of her husband and the possibility she’s in danger? Considering his initial reluctance to follow Dan up those stairs, I don’t think so.

What is the lesson to be learned here, and how does it resonate with the growing rift between Dan and Katie? Your guess is as good as mine. Maybe nothing – which makes it that much more irksome.

Anyway. Big, Important Stuff: Katie’s loneliness and frustration lead her to seek a little non-sexual comfort with Jack-Ass, who attempts his first date in a while with a doctor. (It ends before it even begins.) Dan asks the Register’s science editor (played by Geoffrey Owens, aka Elvin on “The Cosby Show”) about tachyons, particles that travel faster than the speed of light. Science editor puts him in contact with Elliot Langley of Livermore Labs, who calls Dan in the present – and in the past. Say what? Langley mentions that he knew Dan’s father Frank when he used to work for NASA. For those who’ve been waiting for the pseudo-science behind Dan’s time-traveling to come to the fore, looks like you have something to look forward to in the coming weeks.

Someone who doesn’t seem terribly concerned with the hows and whys is Livia, who once again hitches a ride on Dan’s jumps into the past. She tells him the past for travellers is like the Wild, Wild West. Anything goes. Maybe that explains that whole stalking ex-boyfriend thing? Nah.

Heather Cee has been writing for music sites for several years but genre media is her original fandom. She’s a History major dropout, loves music, Batman, and the color green, and thinks Laura Roslin is the most kick ass woman on television. She currently works as a website editor in Tucson, Arizona, where she lives with her husband and a ridiculous amount of CDs, records, books, and DVDs. One day she hopes to own grown-up furniture and pants other than jeans.

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