In a hurry? Read the recaplet for a nutshell description! Finished? Click here to close.
The basic premise is that people from Arcadia, Missouri are coming back to life. Things kick off with Jacob Langston, an eight-year-old boy who drowned 32 years ago before he wakes up in China. He falls into the hands of Marty, an Immigrations officer played by Omar Epps, who takes him home to Missouri. His parents, Lucille and Henry, are now thirty years older than they used to be, and they're understandably freaked out. Lucille accepts the situation right away, but Henry takes almost the whole episode because he's a crusty gentleman played by Kurtwood Smith.
Other characters in town are Sheriff Fred Langston and his daughter Maggie, who seems like she might be the only doctor in town. Fred is Henry's brother, which means that Maggie is Jacob's cousin, and they're particularly bothered because Fred's wife (and Maggie's mother) Barbara drowned along with Jacob. Then there's Tom, a reverend of some sort that used to be Jacob's best friend. And Maggie has a friend named Elaine and Elaine has a brother named Ray. And there are probably more people in Arcadia, but there are only so many names and relationships you can pack into a pilot episode. I didn't even mention Marty's assistant, who spends most of the episode calling Marty and asking why exactly he took this kid to Missouri instead of Health and Human Services.
Dealing with Jacob is surprisingly straightforward. Practically everyone he talks to is pretty sure he is who he seems to be, no matter how impossible that sounds. And they even test his DNA, which also says he's the child of Henry and Lucille Langston. So while there might still be a few scenes of people saying that this is impossible (which it clearly is), it seems like everyone is just moving on with their lives. Sheriff Fred has to deal with the news that his wife was cheating on him, which comes out as a result of Jacob's memories of drowning not matching the story everyone was told.
At the end of the episode, when everyone's taking a breath and wondering what's going to happen , a mysterious drifter is cornered in a shed. He turns out to be Ray and Elaine's father, who died when Elaine was nineteen. So there will probably be more dead people showing up in the future, right?
Want more? The full recap starts right below!Welcome to Resurrection! To make sure there's no confusion, Resurrection is based on a book called The Returned, not the French show The Returned, and even though the premise of this show and the French show are the same when you boil it down to one sentence. Also, this first episode is called "The Returned." I hope that makes everything clear. Let's do this.
The camera moves through some grass. A boy is lying in a few inches of water on his back with his eyes closed. He has a Mansfield Panthers shirt, if you're planning to whip up some cosplay. Then sits up and pants. He seems confused at the sight of a musk ox. The musk ox is pretty relaxed about the whole thing. The kid looks up for no obvious reason other than to let the camera look straight down on him. A wide shot suggests that this is a rice paddy.
The boy trudges along a dirt road and eventually arrives at a mildly busy area where there are people selling suspicious lumps of food on sticks. Everybody ignores him, although he's the only non-Asian person. An elderly couple finally talks to him, but he doesn't understand them. He says, "Is she dead" and then collapses. Now people are paying attention to him, because a random person wandering up and fainting is always entertaining.
There's a title screen and brief music, but not a full opening credits sequence. Here's a look behind the scenes: recappers prefer long credits because it's more screentime that we don't have to recap.
Hey, it's Omar Epps, from House! Hi, Omar! We had some good times when I was recapping that show, huh? He's bouncing a rubber ball against a wall, which sounds somehow familiar. The ball breaks a picture of Omar and a woman, which prompts his assistant (I'm assuming; it's not just because he's a man and she's a woman.) to come in, and he helpfully explains that he broke up with the woman in his picture because she wanted someone with more money. She says a kid needs a ride from the airport to achieve repatriation, and he's willing to take two hours to handle it even though it's a Saturday.
Airport. A blurry banner in the background of one shot says that it's Chicago. Omar learns that the boy showed up in a village in rural China and hasn't said a thing. The official diagnosis is "Traumatized, I guess." They don't know who the boy is or why he was in the middle of China, but maybe it was human trafficking. Although you'd think that human traffickers would be more of an urban enterprise. And from what I understand, they tend to keep pretty good track of the humans they're trafficking. There are no missing person's reports that match the boy, but his shirt is for a Missouri baseball team, and the name "Jacob" is written on his jersey. Searching for recent Visa applications didn't turn up anything. I don't know who decided the boy must be from the United States, if he hasn't said anything. He's got a shirt from Missouri, but if they don't think he goes with the shirt, that doesn't mean anything. There are a lot of white kids in Australia and Europe.
Omar goes up to Jacob and introduces himself as J. Martin Bellamy, adding, "You can call me Marty." Okay! Omar is now Marty. Jacob seems to respond to the name "Jacob," which is convenient because I'm already calling him that. Jacob is willing to look at Marty when he's asked if he's hungry.
Marty checks his phone while Jacob ravenously eats a burger and fries. Did they not feed him on his twelve-hour flight from China? Marty shows Jacob that he's got a lot of games on his phone, and Jacob selects Donkey Kong. Marty asks how he ended up in China, but he doesn't answer. But Jacob's written "Arcadia" on the phone. Marty asks if he means the city of Arcadia, Missouri. He does.
Marty is on the phone with the sheriff of Arcadia. The sheriff assures him there are no missing kids named Jacob. When Marty starts to ask follow-up questions, the he's cut off with a curt "Good luck with your search." Click.
Now Marty's calling Health and Human Services and hiding his gun in the glove compartment. HHS puts him on hold, so he has some extra time to chat with Jacob, who nods that he has a home. Someone finally answers the phone: "Adoption services. Can I help you?" Marty sits there for a pretty long time before he eventually hangs up. He asks Jacob, "If I took you to Arcadia, could you show me the way to your house?" Jacob nods. Marty tells him, "You owe me big time. Marty, you're a federal employee trying to reunite a boy with his family. Do you really think it's appropriate to demand personal favors in return?
Driving. It's a six hour drive from Chicago to Arcadia, but it takes much less time than this. They pass some farms and eventually reach a town. Jacob starts to smile.
A man and a woman in their fifties or sixties or so are studying vocabulary words. Well, she is, but he's calling the exercise repetitive and annoying.
Marty pulls up at a fancy, all-American home. Jacob nods, and Marty tells him to stay in the car. The man of the house (the man we just saw in the last paragraph, who incidentally is Kurtwood Smith, who you know either as Clarence Boddicker from RoboCop or Red from That Seventies Show) answers the doorbell. Marty asks if he's Mr. Langston, and he answers, "I've been called worse." He's not terribly helpful, is he? After Marty pries a little more, Mr. Langston explains that his son died 32 years ago. As he starts to turn away, he sees Jacob. Jacob asks a riddle which Mr. Langston immediately answers with "a frog in a blender." Jacob runs up and hugs him, and Mr. Langston seems a bit thrown. Mrs. Langston comes up to the door, and she's also confused. The confusion takes some time. Through an entire commercial break, in fact.
After the commercial, Marty and Mr. Langston stand on the porch and relate important exposition. The Langstons' son was eight when he fell in the river. His aunt Barbara went in to save him, and she also drowned. Marty is sorry to hear that. But what about this kid? He seems like he thinks he belongs here. Mr. Langston says, "I don't know." That's a reasonable answer.
Inside, Jacob is playing Donkey Kong on Marty's phone. Donkey Kong came out in 1981, so I assume they're showing the boy playing it because he likes a game that came out 33 years ago. But shouldn't he be kind of freaked out by Marty's phone? I was playing video games in 1981, and I assure you that they did not come on things that fit in your pocket. Jacob should still be impressed by ColecoVisions. Mrs. Langston reaches out to touch his head, but she pulls away. The background music is trying to lay on the heartfelt strings, but the Donkey Kong noises kind of get in the way. Jacob and Mrs. Langston lock eyes and he tells her, "You look different." She decides it's definitely her son Jacob, which is good, as we have to get this show going.
Marty's assistant Toni is surprised that he's in Missouri, because he was supposed to be driving Jacob to HHS. She says the boy needs to be brought back before Marty's arrested for kidnapping. Marty spots a picture of the Langston family and takes a picture of it with his phone. I don't know why he does it through a window from outside the house, since he's allowed to go inside.
Now the Sheriff is here to yell at him. This is Henry's brother Fred Langston. He demands to know why a federal agency would issue a report for a boy who disappeared 30 years ago, and it appears that the missing persons report had a picture of Jacob on it. Jacob wanders outside and calls him Uncle Fred. Fred seems to recognize him, and they lock eyes. Jason drops to the ground and starts spasming. People panic and shout about calling an ambulance and someone named Maggie.
At the hospital, we learn that Maggie is Fred's daughter, which means that she's Henry's niece and Jacob's cousin. Marty wants Maggie to examine Jacob for signs of abuse or...or anything, really. There are a lot of questions to be answered about this boy. Also about whether his possible cousin is the right person to be examining him.
Maggie goes into Jacob's large, private hospital room and says, "Hi, Jacob. I'm Maggie." She asks him to lift up his shirt so she can check his heartbeat. There isn't one. Neat! But then she taps her stethoscope and it starts working. Boooo. She asks him about China and his heart starts racing. He's had a stressful time in the last few days. He's also had a twelve-hour flight and a six-hour car ride. Say, why was he flown to Chicago? They weren't going to send him to Missouri, so wouldn't it have made more sense to drop him in Los Angeles, which is closer to China? I like that the only implausibilities about this show that are bothering me all have to do with logistics. Jacob says, "You look like my aunt Barbara. Did you know her?" Barbara would be Maggie's mother, Fred's wife, and the woman who Henry said drowned while trying to save Jacob. I think they could possibly have slow-rolled some of this, because we're getting a lot of names and relationships thrown at us. Jacob says he tried to help Barbara but fell in, which is the opposite of the story everyone else knows. He says, "He was there, too." Who? "The man." That's not helpful. She asks if Jacob is afraid of something or someone.
A guy with patchy facial hair, a hoodie, a baseball cap, and a blazer is out hitchhiking. He looks disreputable, but he still gets a ride. He's going to Arcadia, and he explains that he has a kid there.
Marty looks out the window to see a Langston Street sign. It's not bad enough that most of the characters are named Langston, now the streets are, too? Tony is on the phone again, reminding Marty that Jacob is a ward of the Federal Government. She recommends a DNA test to maybe settle the question of whether he's really related to the Langstons. That's a good idea. We have science now!
We're at the hospital when we finally learn that Mrs. Langston is named Lucille. And she's pleased to see this new guy named Tom, who appears to be a priest. Or maybe minister or reverend. He might be a pastor. I don't know the lingo. Sorry. If the show would like to tell me what denomination he is, I could probably narrow it down. He asks what's going on, and she says it's a miracle. That's not necessarily inaccurate, but it's not terribly descriptive.
Maggie talks to her father about what Jacob said, and he tells her that no man was there when Barbara drowned. He doesn't know that. He wasn't there.
Marty wants to know if Jacob is okay, and all that's wrong with him is that he's a bit sleep deprived. Maggie thinks he might have been coached with information about the people of Arcadia. Fred insists that he was, because it's the only explanation. He does not explain why someone would go to this much effort for a scam with no payoff. He leans a bit on Marty because Fred seems like a very angry person. Marty would like to see autopsy reports and files on Jacob from 32 years ago, which seems like a good idea.
While Henry and Lucille get their mouths swabbed, Tom says that things test their faith sometimes. Mrs. Langston insists that they'll stay overnight to wait for Jacob.
Later that night (probably; this show is more interested in introducing people than in telling us when things are happening) Tom is getting some water when Jacob walks up. Shouldn't they be keeping an eye on him? Jacob asks who he is. Tom says he's Tom Hale, and Jacob says that's his best friend's name. They like to play war together. Tom is shocked as he starts to believe that it's Jacob, and I'm already getting kind of tired of scenes where that happens. Jacob asks, "Did I die?" Tom is confused. Jacob asks, "Did we all die?" Jacob's approaching this like he's somebody speculating during the first season of LOST. I'd like to see him being even more freaked out, actually. Steal some of the lines from Sleepy Hollow where Ichabod doesn't understand modern clothing or something. A nurse comes to get Jacob back to bed.
Maggie knocks on the door of some disorganized dude named Ray, looking for his sister, who is out back. Ray says that Ninja caught a rat, but Maggie isn't that interested. Ray's sister tells him to get cleaned up for dinner and he leaves. Maggie needs to talk to her.
The sister (according to IMDB, her name is Elaine, although the show forgets to include that in this scene) says it's not possible, which is clearly true. No one' arguing with that. Maggie is actually more interested in the part of the story that involves her mother's death. What if the story everyone knows is wrong? Elaine says she used to imagine that something important happened with her father's death, when she was nineteen. Maggie imagined herself in her carriage by the river, and she realized she's always felt guilty, because if her mother hadn't taken her for a walk, she wouldn't have fallen in. And also, "Maybe then my father wouldn't look at me sometimes like he blames me too."
Marty walks the halls of the hospital. Jacob has a nice room! Marty compares the picture he took of the Langston family with the boy in front of him. Looks kind of the same to me. When Marty leaves, Jacob's eyes open suddenly. He pulls a chair over to the window. Then he just stands there for a long time while the music insists that this is meaningful, and then there's a commercial break. I would not mind the commercial breaks coming about five seconds earlier on this show, because it seems like the actors have to just stand around, waiting for the music to catch up with the drama.
Marty pulls up at a fancy building and knocks insistently. The lady inside looks up, but makes no move to open the door. Maggie comes up and calls him "Agent Bellamy," but I'm sticking with "Marty" because it's shorter. Inside, Maggie explains that Arcadians have a natural distrust of outsiders that goes back to the Civil War. They're in the Hall of Records. Marty wants to investigate the scene to see if there's any evidence that someone else could have been there. Maggie kind of zones out at the autopsy report of Barbara Langston, because it's her mother and surely there's some other person who'd be qualified to do this.
Tom is sitting in his church with a woman. I don't know who she is. I'm sorry. He tells her that believes, but he can't imagine how. He feels bad for not believing when he's confronted with a miracle. She says, "You don't need to have all the answers. That's not your job. You just need to comfort those who have questions." She's good at this. I hope to learn her name and relationship to Tom at some point.
Marty is working on microfiche, which makes me feel all cozy and nostalgic. He has no theories yet. He ended up at Immigration after being a cop. He worked with them on a human trafficking case. He sees that Barbara had violent contusions on her throat and half-moons on her wrist. Maggie takes a look and says, "These look like they could be fingernail indentations. Maybe somebody did hold her arm."
Lucille Langston goes into Jacob's room. He's gone. Is he in the bathroom? It's locked, but a nurse opens it. He went out the window. I guess he was staring at that other window because he was thinking about going through it but decided he liked the window in the bathroom better.
Jacob looks at the Langston home from across the street. Mr. Creepy Drifter walks up, whistling. Then the police come up with Henry Langston. Jacob runs. Henry and this cop chase after him because they think he's going to the river. Jacob and Henry go past a sprinkler and we see a flashback of the same thing happening thirty or so years ago. But this time, Mr. Langston can't keep up and play with Jacob on the hammock. Hey, he's older now. It happens. They chase him through some woods covered with dead leaves. The cop loses him. Nice going, dummy. They decide he's gone, but Jacob is digging in a tree and they find him again. Jacob pulls out something wrapped in cloth. He announces, "It's Joe." Ah, a GI Joe. The same one he used to play war with when Tom was a kid. It's in pretty good condition.
Jacob asks his father if he wants to play, but Henry is tired and freaked out. His mother is happy to cook him another grilled cheese sandwich. He can have whatever he likes as long as he doesn't run away. Henry starts to leave "to go for a walk," but Lucille stops him. He insists that their boy died 32 years ago. As he steps outside, Marty and Maggie are there on the porch, waiting to talk to Jacob. Marty tells Henry he can take Jacob away if he doesn't want him there. Henry says, "Do what you have to do." That doesn't really answer the implied question of what Henry wants.
Marty asks Jacob to tell him about the day he fell in the river. He says he went to the big rock and looked for arrowheads. You look where two rivers meet, because that's where Indians hunt. He heard his cousin Maggie, who was crying in a carriage, wearing a hat Jacob gave her. Then he saw Barbara in the river, holding onto a log. Jacob crawled out on it and stretched out his hand, but he fell in. Then he saw a bald man in a blue work shirt holding her. He tried to get out of the water, but he was moving too fast. And that's all he remembers before waking up in China. Jacob says that man is in the picture by the piano. He asks if Marty is going to take him away, and Marty promises to do whatever's best for him. Jacob just wants to go outside and play, which is reasonable behavior for an eight-year-old. Yeah, but wait until he finds out what television is like now. Marty's phone rings with the test results.
Marty finds Henry in the cemetery, where he's looking at the Langston crypt, which he now finds "damn gaudy." Marty says the DNA test confirms that Jacob is his son. Okay, then! And Marty points out that it's not just DNA and the way Jacob looks. The kid knows things. And Henry clearly believed when he first saw him. Henry answers, "Believed what? The impossible? That he's not there, in that vault, where I laid him 32 years ago?" Good question. Open it up and let's see what's in there. Marty asks if he wants to believe.
Henry stands at the river and remembers his son.
Tom is giving a sermon in which he says that even John had doubt. And Jesus told John's disciples to go to him. Then Lucille and Jacob Langston come in, hand in hand. Tom stammers. They're the only ones in red, so they stand out. They're going to need to get Jacob new clothes, because he's had those on ever since he woke up in a rice paddy in China, and he's probably got some musk ox on him. Tom loses his place, then admits that not even John knew "how he got here on this Earth." John was human and was given the tools to ask the questions, not the answers. Tom ends with the question, "Isn't that what it means to have faith?" So at this point, everyone at this church has seen Lucille with Jacob. And the people who ran the DNA test know what's going on, as do the people back at Marty's office. I bring this up because a lot of times, shows like this have impossible things happen and then get successfully covered up. I don't think that's happening this time.
Fred comes home and his brother Henry is on the porch. Henry says, "There's something I need to tell you." It's about Barbara. Jacob said a man from the company was at the accident, and Henry knows it's true. Fred asks, "Why didn't you ever say anything?" Henry says, "Because he was sleeping with her. I'm sorry." Fred turns away and goes inside. I'm sorry, but I have trouble getting too worked up over an affair that took place 32 years ago, involving two characters we've never met.
In the Langston house (which is what I'm calling the place that Henry and Lucille live, even though Fred and Maggie also live in what could be called Langston houses) Lucille and Jacob play the piano. Henry watches.
Maggie knocks on Fred's door, but Fred's drinking in the cemetery.
Tom sits in the church as that lady comes in behind him.
Maggie knocks again, and Fred throws his bottle at the statue.
Marty tells Toni that the boy's at the clinic, and that there are no results. I don't see how he can get away with that lie in a world with the internet. Doesn't the government have some sort of system where you can verify that the repatriation has taken place?
Maggie, Elaine, and some other guy are at a bar or restaurant or something. Elaine gets a call from Ray, who's shouting a lot. She says, "He's talking crazy and he's got a gun." As they go out, Marty says hello to Maggie. He was conveniently at the same place, so he comes along.
Ray and his dog (Ninja, I assume) are shouting. Well, Ninja's barking, but that's the dog equivalent of shouting. The general theme of Ray's ranting is that he's got a demon trapped in the shed. Weird. The door opens, a man steps out , and it's that drifter from before. He says, "It's okay." And of course, he turns out to be Elaine's father, who died when she was nineteen. She touches his beard and hugs him. Camera pulls back from straight above them. End of episode.
So we're going to get more dead people. I hope there are just a ton of them. Like, by the fifth episode, I want to see Civil War soldiers wandering around the place. And by the end of the season, some of those Native Americans who dropped the arrowheads that Jacob found. Almost everyone's accepting the impossible premise, so let's push the envelope here.
Follow Monty on Twitter at @monty_ashley and read his blog, Mysterious Exhortations.