Another lackluster episode with actors
too good for the material. We have the events of the past playing
out again in the form of what may or may not be the reincarnations of
two people from the 1920s. We also get the mandatory discussions of
whether or not reincarnation is real, and clues pointing both ways.
Stephan (Aaron Stanford), a grad
student looking for a new home, rents an old house simply because he
has a feeling that he belongs there. He begins to have visions of
himself as a man named Maxwell (Eric Balfour) in the 1920s, and his
abusive relationship with his girlfriend Zelda (Camille Guaty).
Strangely, Zelda looks exactly like his friend Karen (also played by
Guaty), and Maxwell's relationship with her seems to reflect his
feelings as he wants to start a relationship with Karen, but is
intimidated by her.
Stephan begins regression therapy with
his psychiatrist (Gerard Plunkett), and we begin to see what a
violent individual Maxwell is. He openly admits that he's an
ex-boxer turned hit-man, and talks about his anger at Zelda,
threatening to kill her. Stephan comes to believe that in the 1920s
Maxwell killed Zelda, and the scenario
will repeat itself with Karen and himself.
Stephan begins having memory lapses,
and Karen discovers that he had pictures and newspaper clippings of
Maxwell and Zelda in a box of materials for his dissertation.
Stephan, though, has no memory of them. While Stephan takes this as
proof that the two were real, Karen sees it as proof he built his
delusions around real people. The audience takes it as proof that
the director thinks he's more clever than he is.
Honestly, Stephan's logic in this
episode doesn't even make a great deal of sense to me. He seems to
believe that Maxwell is maliciously trying to take over his body to
kill Karen, but when we see Maxwell in control of Stephan's body
Maxwell seems just as confused, and completely unaware of what
century he's in. The entire scenario, if it is a case of
reincarnation, doesn't seem to be any one person's fault as Stephan
believes.
And, of course, it turns out Zelda
kills Maxwell not the other way around. Echoing this, Karen kills
Stephan when Maxwell's personality takes over. The only remotely
unpredictable thing about it is the manner in which it happens.
Maxwell, of all people, attempted to de-escalate the situation
between himself and Zelda by yelling for her to get out, and Zelda
stabs him for calling her a “slut.”
While this scenario does deserve credit
for acknowledging that men can be victims of domestic abuse, the
decision to portray Maxwell as the sympathetic one after his repeated
death threats against Zelda just comes across as contrived. Zelda
could be considered an abuser based on what we've seen, cheating on
Maxwell openly and rubbing it in his face, but Maxwell is far from
the innocent.
The memories of Zelda stabbing him
cause Stephan to attack Karen, and she responds by stabbing him.
The scenario is hardly the same. I was actually somewhat baffled by
Karen mirroring Zelda by bragging to Stephan about the men she'd
slept with while trying to hurt him. As far as I can tell Karen and
Stephan were not even in a relationship until the final moments of
the episode, so why the hell did he care? Maybe Karen was supposed
to be possessed by Zelda, but if so that wasn't clear.
If you watch this episode, watch it for
Eric Balfour. He does a great 1920s thug. That's really all I have
to recommend about it.
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