Episode Report Card Monty Ashley: B- | 44 USERS: A- YOU GRADE IT Dead People With Feelings
By Monty Ashley | Season 1 | Episode 2 | Aired on 03.16.2014
In a hurry? Read the recaplet for a nutshell description! Finished? Click here to close.The town now has two dead people running around. The one we've already been introduced to is Jacob, who does some literal running around, at least until the other parents decide not to let their children play with the kid who just came back from the dead. Marty has a plan to open up the Langston tomb to check the DNA of the Jacob that drowned 32 years ago. You'd think that would help clear things up, but most of the Langstons are opposed because that tomb also contains Barbara. In fact, much of the episode is devoted to Fred, Maggie, and Henry talking about whether Barbara was having an affair in 1982. She was. And now everyone knows who she was having the affair with. But the gentleman in question says he's not Maggie's real father.
The other dead person is Caleb Richards, father of Elaine and Ray. He says he woke up three days ago in Portland and doesn't have any memory of having a heart attack. Ray doesn't think he's really his father, because he's clearly hiding something, just like his father used to. I don't think Ray's thought this objection through. But he's right that Caleb is up to something, because he seems to have some sort of weird power over Jacob. Also, he sneaks off into the woods, digs a hole to find a body, and seems like he might kill a guy with a hammer at the end of the episode.
Although it seemed in the first episode that pretty much everyone accepted Jacob's identity, things take a step backward in that department. Henry's reaction to everything is to scowl and stomp out of the room. Tom doesn't want anything to do with Jacob, but he ends up playing video games with him, just like old times. Marty tells Toni that this all has to be kept secret, because a low-level employee of Immigration and Customs Enforcement is the ideal person to deal with this whole situation. Although he also turns around and has her use her Department of Justice connections to push through the tomb-opening, so you'd think there would be questions.
For most of the episode, there are very few questions being asked about the implications of the dead people coming back. It's not even clear if Jacob understands that thirty years have passed. But Maggie and Marty get the Langston tomb opened, and at the end of the episode, they finally open Jacob's coffin. Then they stare at each other because something has happened that we're not allowed to see yet.
Want more? The full recap starts right below!Previously on Resurrection: many characters were introduced.
We open in the cemetery. This seems like it's going to be a standard location for the show, although if enough dead people come back to life, it'll lose a lot of its dramatic effect. Jacob is still wearing his red shirt. Get that kid some clean clothes! I don't care how much he likes the Mansfield Panthers. He notices that there's a statue next to the family crypt that looks sort of like him. The creepy drifter dad from last episode is stalking him, whistling. Then he dissolves to dust. Jacob looks at his own hand, which also falls to dust. Then he wakes up. I think it's a mistake to have dream sequences in a show that's already full of impossible things. It just adds confusion. Jacob's mother Lucille is sitting there watching him sleep. She tells him he was just dreaming and he asks, "I'm not anymore?" See, he knows. And I don't blame him for being a little skeptical about this whole deal, although I'd like him to be showing a little more interest in being thirty years in the future.
Elaine Richards and her father Caleb (the creepy drifter dad from last paragraph -- he's also supposed to be dead) greet each other briefly, and then Marty comes in to ask what the deal is. Caleb says he just remembers driving his truck and blacking out. Then he woke up three days ago in Portland. He has no memory of a heart attack at all. When Marty tells him he died, he doesn't believe it. That's not entirely irrational; it's an odd thing to be told, right? Although he also doesn't seem to care about the time that's passed while he was dead. His body was found at his hunting shack. Ray is just skulking in the corner glowering at everyone. Caleb has a headache and wants to do this some other time. And Marty's fine with that, because why would you want a lot of information about this guy who just came back from the dead? This whole show is populated by people with what I think is a shocking lack of curiosity.
Outside, Marty asks Maggie if Caleb's story could be true. She says she saw his dead body before it was cremated (because she's apparently the only doctor in town, although she has plenty of time to run around town all day), and Caleb hasn't aged a day. Marty nods. "So, okay -- looks like there are two now. Returned." So they wonder why Jacob remembers dying, but Caleb doesn't? See, that's more like it. Try to figure out the rules of what's going on. Ray comes out and says, "That man is there? That's not dad." I feel like we already went through a cycle of disbelief in the first episode. There's a limit to how many times you can have people saying "This isn't really my loved one who died a long time ago. Oh wait, now I believe it." That emotional beat loses its punch eventually.