The Tomorrow People, Season 1, Episode 3, “Girl, Interrupted”
Written by Micah Schraft and Pam Veasey
Directed by Danny Cannon
Airs Wednesdays at 9/8C on the CW
While still riddled with more holes than a strainer, this week’s episode of the CW’s The Tomorrow People is marginally better than both the previous one and the pilot. Which isn’t saying much, but at least there’s been some improvement. This week in the misadventures of Stephen and his merry band of Tomorrow People we discover Cara’s dislike for humanity, continue to watch Stephen play the most unconvincing double agent known to mankind and then screw up because of Cara’s telepathic instability, come face to face with the Tomorrow People’s wildly hypocritical disregard for human life, and are baffled at their inability to spot a trap from a mile away.
Exciting stuff!
In this third episode we learn of Cara’s troubled, and human, past. She was deaf, she was nearly raped, and she accidentally killed a peer in self defense and then fled from police custody only to be turned away by her father. A dark past for the mysterious and beautiful protagonist in the tight leather jacket. While a horrifying past that would certainly justify Cara having a difficult time around men, human or otherwise, her hatred for mankind as a whole feels out of place in this episode and show. Throughout the season so far Cara’s only ever expressed a desire to coexist with homosapiens and there’s been nothing to suggest she dislikes the lot of them. While giving her an interesting backstory is great, and definitely helps to make her flatter-than-paper character feel a little more real, it doesn’t justify her completely turning her back on all of humanity. It also makes the Tomorrow People’s plea to Ultra feel completely hypocritical. These genetically advanced beings don’t want to be judged poorly because of the actions of a few renegade members, yet Cara openly condemns all people? They don’t want to be hated or feared for being different, yet she’s comfortable hating and fearing people because they don’t understand her? Isn’t that super counterproductive for their cause?
We then get to watch Stephen sneak around Ultra headquarters playing double agent with Cara’s help. Assigned with the task of sneakily plugging a program into their mainframe that would give the Tomorrow People’s supercomputer (which is their non-copyright-infringing version of Tony Stark’s JARVIS) access to Ultra’s files, Stephen is told telepathically by Cara where to go and who to look out for. This is all well and good if we don’t think about it too much (or at all), but the second we do some painfully evident holes in the plot reveal themselves to audiences.
First and foremost, how is no one noticing a high school student, who’s supposed to be under careful guard by a senior telepath, walk through a restricted zone in Ultra’s head office? While Cara is telling him when to hide and when to move, surely the whole organization doesn’t run purely on psychic security. That seems impractical considering there are some superpower-proofed rooms located in the building. There must be a run-of-the-mill security system equipped with cameras and guards somewhere. Won’t the average Joe manning the security screens notice the out-of-place teenager running around and ducking behind vents as other members of the team approach him?
Another troubling hole in Cara helping secret agent Stephen is that she’s having some technical difficulties with her telepathy, which isn’t a secret to anyone but Stephen. John admits later in the episode that this time of the year is hard on Cara, reminding her of her troubled past. Knowing this information, shouldn’t another telepath have been sent in? Cara can’t be the only Professor X wannabe that the Tomorrow People have. Even Stephen is capable of infiltrating the minds of those around him, so why let the problem-riddled Cara be psychic lookout on the highly delicate mission?
Also, sidebar, why isn’t his handler more suspicious of him taking off the way he does. Sure, he says he needs air after she pretends to shoot him, hoping his abilities to stop time will kick in again, but wouldn’t she keep an eye on where he walks off to? Wouldn’t she accompany him through the top secret lair rather than trust he’s not going try something funny?
And on a side note, why does Stephen need to take his top off for her to put the electrode on him? The electrode used to record his physiological responses needs to be stuck directly to his bare skin, but she only puts one tiny electrode on him and she sticks it on his collarbone. There’s absolutely no reason for Stephen to take his shirt off whatsoever. It easily could’ve fit under his shirt or could’ve been placed if he’d only unbuttoned the top of his collar. It is an obvious gig to expose as much of Amell as possible and feels twice as cheap as Amell likely did after filming the scene.
Anyways…
Another fun twist in this episode is learning that the Tomorrow People seemingly have no regard for human life. Upon Marty-Stu-Stephen overhearing a classmate think about how she’s going to be dead in 48 hours, Stephen seeks the aid of his fellow X-Men Tomorrow People to help keep this troubled girl from killing herself.
Except they won’t help because they don’t want to play God.
Really?
They’ll attempt to steal information about possible Tomorrow People that are going to be killed off by Ultra in hopes of saving these mutants and that’s ok, but actively try to prevent teen suicide and you’ve suddenly undertaken the role of a deity? This “no using our powers to prevent human death” rule seems like a forced restriction on the Tomorrow People in order for them to achieve fake growth. By putting this ridiculous restriction on the character of the show, they’re able to break their own self-imposed rules and fake that they’ve undergone any real development as characters. Except it’s blatantly obvious to the audience that this is just a trick by the show’s writers and it accomplishes even less than Amell taking his shirt off.
Also, is no one concerned by the fact that all episode long a teenager’s possible death is taken so lightly? No one ever gives much attention to this teen in crisis. Only at the end, when she’s missing and has parked her car on a set of train tracks, does everyone suddenly care that a young girl’s life is in the balance. And even then, it takes less than three minutes for Cara to dissuade the clinically depressed teenager from killing herself. So either the show is exploiting teen suicide as a means of creating plot and failed character development for both Stephen and Cara, or Cara’s better than Dr. Phil.
Lastly, this episode highlights just how incapable the band of superhumans really is. Perhaps if Jedikiah hadn’t run into Stephen leaving the restricted room that houses the Ultra mainframe all would’ve been fine. But he does. And while “I was just looking for you” may be a fantastic excuse if you get caught poking around someone’s room, that may not be the most credible lie you can give the head of a militant mutant-hating diabolical organization. For Stephen to believe that no one suspects him of anything is naive and frustrating for the audience. Not to mention that the trap they set up for the Tomorrow People is unoriginal and less than compelling, with viewers able to foresee the set up miles before it happens.
Although a better episode than last week, this week’s showing of the CW’s The Tomorrow People is nothing to get excited about. With hypocritical heroes, bigger potholes in the story than on a Montreal side street and less than exciting action scenes, The Tomorrow People isn’t worth the hour it takes to watch it (or the space on your PVR).