Warning: Full spoilers for the episode follow...
"Dammit!" Count: 2
The best way I can think to describe the double-episode Season 1 finale of Touch, "Gyre," is as a satisfying fizzle. While I appreciated the revisiting of characters that Martin had met all throughout the season (Pawn Shop Owner, Invisible Knight), I felt like there were still a ton of missed opportunities. If this show was going to bring back old faces, it seems like, over the course of two hours, the show could have utilized a lot more characters than it did - and in more interesting and meaningful ways.
As it stands, the only re-connection that felt worthwhile was with Randall, who finally got to properly meet Martin and Jake and gain personal closure for himself. Everyone else just, sort of, aided and abetted. Yes, Randal did wind up also helping Martin and Jake escape, but with his character also came an emotional bond over the death of Martin's wife. Of course, we did have to listen to Randall tell the same stairwell story . And while his gift of a free car was a nice gesture, it seems like having one that was unregistered with no tags would have made Martin and Jake even more of a target while crossing the country. So like most everything on this show, the decently executed stuff also tends to get bogged down with clunkiness.
"Gyre" had the chance to bring back many things and themes. What happened to the world phone? Was the jazz hall from "Lost & Found? even saved? What the hell is the Beastmaster up to these days? For a show all about a giant cosmic web of connectivity, I was really looking for a grand payoff. But it didn't happen. What happened was that the first half of "Gyre" was about Martin uncovering a rather dangerous conspiracy revolving around child-napping, and the second was about Martin realizing he can't fight Aster Corps, saying "f*** it," and stealing Jake. So we wound up, by the end, watching Martin just full-on breaking the law - not knowing whether we should actually be rooting for him to, potentially, get into even trouble. And will Martin and Jake now have to change their names for Season 2? I'm all for cliffhangers, but the fact that t was fired at Aster Corps left me feeling a bit empty. A big "To Be Continued" fleeing doesn't really hit the spot.
As far as the side stories went, well, the the douchebag backpacker trying to track down the reggae duo was silly, as was the reveal that one of them had become a woman. The Japanese family story felt a little more vital because it also tied directly into Maria Bello's Lucy and Ian Gomez's Wade on the junk beach. Although, while I enjoyed the Japanese father thanking his son for randomly finding his ancestor's samurai sword, we're left with no answer as to whether or not that family, who's still jobless, would be okay going forward. Also, did anyone fully buy Clea selling out? Especially after Martin, following Jake's numbers, helped save her other's life? Maybe it was her plan all along to just help Jake bust out, sure, but that was never made clear.
So what did work here? Well, I really liked the Amelia stuff. And even though Lucy and Wade's story started off extremely annoying, with the two of them bickering on the beach, I thought that Lucy following Amelia's numbers, and tide patterns, was a really great touch. It was cool to see that her original calculations led her to the phone call from her ex-husband and that her adjusted equation took her to Martin and Jake. Yes, it was too much to believe that Amelia was going magically appear like Lucy thought, but she wound up getting the next best thing: signs of life. Also, the big reveal that Aster Corps actually fakes the death of the kids they're interested in really helped up their sinister-factor.
With many ratings-watchdogs not expecting Touch to go more than two seasons (it'll be paired with the final season of Fringe on Fridays), it seems clear now that Aster Corps won't topple until the end of the next run. They're also probably saving any sort of full Amelia discovery for then too. Which is fine, but it just made "Gyre" feel a bit empty.
Source : http://www.ign.com/articles/2012/06/01/touch-gyre-review
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