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Journeyman: Winterland

by Isabelle Carreau, posted Nov 13th 2007 8:38AM
Journeyman(S01E08) "I have one brother. He's messed up but he's not a crook." - Jack

This week's Journeyman episode had a tough act to follow because last week's installment was fantastic. "Winterland" may not have been as good as "Double Down" but it sure gave us a lot of answers about Livia and had the FBI Agent connect some dots we wondered if someone eventually would.

The case of the week was pretty much a filler this week. It didn't serve much purpose as the important stuff happened in the present. That's when Special Agent Richard Garrity decided to push his investigating further, when Langley contacted Dan again, and when Katie found Livia's picture. The only thing I'll mention about the case of the week is that we didn't get to see enough of John Schneider (Dukes of Hazzard and Smallville). That said, let's get down to business, shall we?

Quartz

Langley contacted Dan. As usual, the conversation between the two men was cryptic and incomplete. Langley asked Dan about his novel. He then told him about working on something related to quartz (which was also mentioned in the Café Luna convo between the hippies and Dan and Livia), But what is more important, at least short term, is that Langley asked Dan if other people were interested in his work and that time traveling could be used to defeat terrorism. Since Langley didn't freak out when seeing Dan vanish, it is now crystal clear that the man is involved in the "project." Could this "project" all be about defeating terrorism? Or at least keeping people who will make a difference around so that they help make the world a better place? I hope we see the people he saved in future episodes, maybe interacting with one another even. What is the important of quartz? Could it be that since it's used in clock making maybe it's also used to make Livia and Dan (and maybe others) travel in time?

Livia

I must admit that I wasn't expecting Livia to be living in the past. We did know she started traveling before she met Dan, that it stopped around the time she met him and that it resumed after the plane crash. Livia did not only interact more with Dan's "case" this week (usually she talks to Dan, not the people he needs to help) but she finally opened up about her travels. Here is what I gathered from this week's episode:
  • She lives in 1948.
  • She travels in the future while Dan travels in the past.
  • When Dan told her that he wanted to know why the higher powers wanted him to do their dirty work, Livia said things that make it sound like she may have tried to find these answers and failed (or she got answers but it took a lot of work and convincing).
  • It is implied (by what Dan told Katie later in the episode) that Livia told him the travels would be longer every time.
  • She said that when she arrived in the 80s, she didn't know what her mission was. She settled down and tried to adjust. She fell in love with Dan and eventually had to leave this timeline when her work was done. She didn't exactly say the words, but it looks like her mission was to get to know Dan. Maybe The Power That Be knew Dan would become a traveler and wanted the two to bond so they would work better together when the time came.
FBI

Since I'm still not fully embracing the Jack character, I was not caring about this storyline much. Yes, I found it interesting for Dan to have to face the consequences of bringing something from the past in the present but it wasn't that interesting until Garrity told Jack about that bill given to the 1995 cab driver. Did Past Jack release Past Dan? Are both cases linked? We know Garrity is on the right track. How he pursues this lead and how it'll impact the brothers will be entertaining to watch. Even if it looks like Jack put the bill back in circulation, I'm sure Garrity will find other ways to link both cases. Jack will be in hot water for a long while.

Other tidbits of interest:
  • The Vassers are pondering getting help to take care of Zack when they are not home. Will they tell the helper about Dan's travels?
  • Katie showed us how clever she is by giving Dan the bag, knowing that the FBI agent would go through it, and putting the money in the coat.
  • Katie was crushed after learning about Past Livia and the fact travels would become longer. The Katie/Dan couple is strong but there is a limit to being apart and having to live like that. Could the gossiping about workplace romance at the top of the episode be hinting at a future where Katie and Ed hook up?
  • It seems that the confrontation during which Dan told Jack that he did tell him the truth about what was going on but that Jack decided not to believe shook Jack up enough for him to start to believe.

Do you think Katie will have an affair?
Yes89 (26.1%)
No173 (50.7%)
I don't know37 (10.9%)
I don't care42 (12.3%)

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Tim

Journeyman is one of the more intelligently written new shows this season. However, word on the blogs say it is targeted for cancellation. It evidently isn't hitting the desired Nielsen numbers hoped for. However, when one considers that the Nielsen Media research people aren't currently able to monitor the users of TiVo or DVR devices, the current Nielsen cross section probably consists of lower income, lower tech, less educated viewers that are probably either asleep or too exhausted before 9pm on any given weeknight. The general complaint I've heard about Journeyman is that you have to really pay attention or it is too easy to get lost and confused. One reason I use a DVR is so I can enjoy these more complex story lines at a decent hour when my brain is more able to absorb a show's brilliance. But alas, Nielsen is probably more driven to insure advertiser's commercials are viewed in their entirety without the ability to fast-forward the DVR advance button.

November 28 2007 at 10:50 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Toby OB

I got in my head during the episode that the taller hippie with the quartz was going to turn out to be Elliott Langley, and that making sure he returned to the straight and narrow was Dan's real mission and not Abby/Angela.

Even after he was killed in the deli, I figured maybe he was Elliott's brother and had been the inspiration for Langley to work with quartz in connection to time travel.

Oh well. Still a good episode even if nobody did enough research about Neil Young. (He didn't play at the Winterland in '74 from what I could find, but he did do so in '73.)

Yeah... I'm that geeky.

November 16 2007 at 9:21 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Akbar Fazil

I am pretty sure the rest of the McClean money (sans the 100 the FBI has and the large chunk spent in the card game last week) was left at the robbery.

Did anyone catch what year the robbery took place in? Was it before or after the hijacking? Either way, the money is probably in some vault as evidence from the shooting and is not traceable by the feds.

November 14 2007 at 10:59 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
BobbyBuz

The transfer of money from the bag to the jacket was not at all realistic. Had that amount of of money been placed in Dan's sport jacket he'd have looked like the Michelin Man.

November 14 2007 at 10:41 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Horse N. Buggy

1. Do we know it's a rule that people can only travel within their lifetime or is that just a leftover from Quantum Leap?

2. I think the doctor was telling Dan that the government invested in his research because they thought it was a plausible way to go back in time to "stop" terrorism before it happens. How many people would love for there to be a way to go back in time to capture the pilots from 9/11 before they boarded the plane? It would have stopped both the actual attack and the retaliatory war. Variations of this concept were seen in both Deja Vu and Minority Report.

3. I agree that changing one person's life wouldn't necessarily change everyone's life. So Katie could still be aware of the changes Dan has effected in people's lives, although the individuals are not.

4. Livia took the money back to Dan to get in the card game on the night Katie rescued him. Then he brought back the rest to his house in 2007. He only needed between 10K & 20K to get in the game.

5. I think Dan got rid of the money he had left in the robbery. He didn't have the whole stash to begin with, Dillon took some. He spent either 10K or 20K in the card game. $100 is in the hands of the FBI in 2007. Shouldn't it all be accounted for in 2007 now? The FBI would know about the pile in the robbery because none of the thieves got away...unless Abby took some with her, but I don't think she did.

6. MORE JOHN SCHNEIDER!!! I love seeing that man on my TV screen.

7. I suspected that Livia was on a "mission" while she was with Dan - why else would her traveling have stopped for so long? But I didn't expect that she was from the past. If she is from the past, and the rule of traveling in your lifetime is correct, Dan should be able to find "old" Livia in 2007. She would be in her 80s.

November 14 2007 at 10:26 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Ian

Some strange editing IMHO.Facts discussed between Dan and Katie did not come out during Dan's travels, unless I missed it all. It seems inevitable that Dan and Livia will hook up again as will Jack and Katie. Especially now Jack finally believes Dan is travelling. Meantime Garrity seems more concerned with discovering facts about Dan re his time travels rather than money laundering, so he must represent the bad guys in Gvt. Meantime Langley is pretty useless running no defense for Dan. Overall the possibile twists and subplots are beginning to rival LOST!

November 13 2007 at 11:38 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Brian

I have a DVR+HD... and I rewound just to make sure... and you can very clearly see the serial number on the 20 at the bar was the same one that the FBI agent had on his desk in the evidence bag. The question becomes... how did he get it out of the bag? And does he think noone will notice? I wonder if some episode from now Dan will have to leap... err... journey... to help his brother out of this hole he's digging himself in.

What I didn't understand... I thought Livia "took" all the money with her? Or were there two bags? (I havent watched episode 6 or 5 yet... so my answer is probably in there.) I just figured the whole bag search scene was them using their reporter smarts to mess around with Agent Weasel.

November 13 2007 at 10:24 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
rick

I don't believe Jack spent the $20 that was in evidence but he was contemplating it.

If you consider the universe as a giant novel, changing events for some characters may have no impact on others. Changing Abbie (Angela) from criminal to congresswoman (is that really a change?) might change Abbie's timeline and that of those in contact with her but not necessarily other people. I consider time travel like changing versions of a novel with the changes printed on different color pages. Well there is a blue version, a red version, a yellow version etc. and then there is a multicolored version. Dan and Livia live in different colored versions for the most part Dan in the multicolored version where the pages have changed to bring about the greatest good and his travels to the past are to other single color time lines to bring the various different colors into his version. Lidia lives in a single color version travelling to other single color versions which have been discolored to shed the other color pages from her single color future and return them to either the original version of the multicolored version. She is the one working to keep the blue line blue and Dan is the one trying to make the best possible outcome in a multi-colored version.

November 13 2007 at 6:39 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Joe

I'm waiting for the episode where Dan holds on to Livia as she travels back to 1948 and he gets to go all the way back there. Wouldn't that be fun! The mind boggles. This whole episode had me staring at the screen, mouth open wide and grinning like an idiot. When Garrity mentioned the plane and the $20 bill, the whole 'grand design' of these first few episodes amazed me. Then when Livia's situation came to light, my mouth got a little wider. But nothing beats the subtext in Dan's conversations with Dr. Langley. This show deserves to be repeated through the strike so more people can pick it up. If it's cancelled, it'll be the first show I think I will truly mourn.

November 13 2007 at 6:01 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
clodjee

I think this was one of the best episodes.

I think that Langley was warning Dan that the FBI is investigating time-travellers in order to try to use them against terrorists (àla “Déjà Vu”). He said them tried that on him and that's why he left.

I think that Jack did spend the $20 bill evidence. It shows that he might be starting to believe his brother and will do what he can to help him.

I can't wait to see what's happening next!

November 13 2007 at 4:56 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply

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