Episode Report Card Jacob: A | 366 USERS: B- YOU GRADE IT A Human Reaction
By Jacob | Season 1 | Episode 16 | Aired on 1999.08.20
Immediate cut to Jack, having taken care of those assholes somehow, entering the cell. John's so happy to see his dad, so tired and desperate: "Dad. Get me out of here, please." Jack hates the conditions: "I need to ask you some questions," he murmurs, sick. John is minorly taken aback at the idea that his dad's siding against him with IASA. Again. This is a show that can't turn down the opportunity to go back to kindergarten with old John on a regular basis. On the other hand, the only thing worse than seeing John at the absolute edge of losing it, as normal, is seeing him happy, because that's when you know the awful shit is really going to come down. He snorts, and they stand, silent. Jack crosses around behind John so that he won't have to look at his son's hurt and accusation, and asks, "What happened on your tenth birthday?" John's confused for a second, and Jack can't meet his eyes. John: "I don't know. I can't remember." Jack leads him, reminding him that they were living in Annapolis. "Annapolis? Right. You were late. Again." Jack falls, because the guilt of his career choices, and the sight of seeing the continuing effect they have on his grown son, are two different sides of the same pain. "Why?" asks Jack. "You said," John says, sighing, remembering, "you said they held you at Houston for tests. You missed your flight. But you commandeered a jet and you came, anyway." Jack smiles a little, and nods. "I woke you up at 4 o'clock in the morning." Jack took his son fishing, John remembers, and Jack nods again, nearly crying. "And you caught the biggest damn bass I'd ever seen." John, stung: "It was a trout, Dad." (Note: if John and Jack ever meet again, this will be the question, because it sums up the sadder, scarred side of their history. It was a trout, not a bass, and even in remembering Jack can't help but screw it up, and that stays with John.) Jack swallows, but nods: "It was a trout. I missed you, son." They embrace, holding tight, and Jack sighs in relief. John's almost gone. He whispers softly, "What's going on? I know recovery procedure as well as anyone. This is way beyond routine." But Jack's on it: "Nothing's been routine since the day you left, seven months ago. That wormhole you went through is still there. You opened a door, son. A door to Earth we don't know how to close." John whispers, "Get me out of here," and Jack promises he will. Promises all of it, squeezing his eyes shut, holding his son, once lost and now found.
Jack and his son stand on a pier at the beach, John's seven-month bout of paranoia reasserting itself: "I don't buy this, Dad...Wilson, letting me out. There's no way he'd let me out of his sight, if what you say is true." Jack's surprised that John knows Wilson, and Cobb, but explains to John that they're surrounded: "See that van in the parking lot? Those two women to our right? The one in the red, with the headphones? The one sunning herself on the rocks?" We consider these spies, again in dreamlike slow motion: "They're watching us." John watches one older man in a Speedo rising out of the water. "They like to get real close." How close? Jack removes an eagle pin from his jacket, and radio sounds can be heard. He drops it into the water below them, and a crab crawls around on it all, "Breaker breaker? I'm just a lowly crustacean." Jack exposits that there's a global alliance that's been set up to track the wormhole, and that Ray Wilson is the Pentagon's chosen point man. John asks what the hell Wilson wants, and Jack's no happier about it: "He wants you relaxed, so that I can tell whether or not you're really my son." John's like, "OMG already, dude!" Jack continues: "And he wants to know everything you know about the wormhole, and everything you saw on the other side." John scoffs, because he's obviously spilling everything he knows. Jack respects that. John takes out his puzzle ring and hands it over: more proof. "I kept that safe for you," he tells Jack. "Don't know if it brought me luck but it saved my ass." True, and a hearty round of applause for the ring for that particular giant favor, but also: and Aeryn's ass, and D'Argo's ass. And Aeryn's soul. Jack finally admits to his stages of grief when John disappeared. "Well, now you know,"says John. "Now you know how I felt as a kid, every time you went on a mission." The accent comes and goes. Jack ignores this total foul, and puts his hand on John's shoulder. "Come on, son. We've got a lot of work to do."