“Game Three”

“Game Three” is a continuation of a deliberate tale.  The show has slowly delved into the consequences of Dan’s new lifestyle while maintaining an interesting mystery that we get to solve with Dan as we figure out what he’s doing back in time each time and also what the rules are about his time travel.

Dan jumps back in time and finds himself in an unknown time where he sees a sign that says Game 3 tonight!  Before he can figure out the date, he is run into by a man who is trying to escape some thugs.  Dan helps the man escape and is given a card.  Alan Pratt, attorney.  Just as quickly he returns to his reality.

After some discussion with Katie, we realize that he must have been in 1989 right before Game Three of the World Series that San Francisco was involved with…the day of the tragic earthquake.

After searching for Pratt on the net among the earthquake victims Dan finds nothing, but the viewer discovers that Hugh’s sister was one of the victims.

This inspires Dan a bit.  Instead of going back to help what is obviously his charge, he can save people from the earthquake, if he can find a way to warn everyone.  Of course no one believes him…would you?

Livia appears again and tries to counsel Dan into following his instincts with his charge.  She intimates that he can’t fix the past, or everyone, his job is specific.   She also gives him a watch to replace his broken one and it turns out to be a watch that Dan had given her.

Running into Alan Pratt again, we discover that he is a near bottomed out gambler who owes nearly $500,000 to bookies and is desperate.  Dan tries to talk to him and reveals his card table problems from his past, but Alan doesn’t care.  He just wants in on a game.

Dan leads him to one in the hopes that hitting rock bottom will be the only way he’ll want to recover.

Meanwhile Katie helps Dan by getting a reluctant source to confide in her, helping Dan to finish an article that he has a tight deadline on.  Unfortunately she also learns from Jack that Dan has seen Livia in the past, even as Dan said he never saw anyone he knew.

Uh-oh…

Then to make matters worse, he had told Livia that she didn’t know the girl he married…but in this episode he slips that it’s Katie.

Screwed on both ends…and he’s not even cheating.  It’s a unique storyline that veers on soap opera but the writers do a good job of never letting it hit that level.

Dan though is obsessive about finishing his work, whatever it is.  I can rationalize it that whatever makes him go back, also gives him instinct to instruct him on what he is supposed to fix…or at least who, so it’s not much of a further leap that the same instinct also makes it so that he feels he needs to do it at any cost.

Unfortunately, his instinct to help his friends overrides his instincts to help Alan Pratt and he does everything he can to help save Hugh’s sister, getting her to come to drinks with him at 4:30 so she doesn’t see get caught in the earthquake.  Unfortunately Livia and Dan are having a heart to heart when she shows and she decides to leave.

Upon returning to the future Dan realizes he can’t help her, but he can’t understand why.  He decides to help Alan as best as he can and when he jumps back he drags Alan from the card game physically and they fight on the street until he runs back towards the game when the earthquake hits.  Alan then runs back into the building and has a near death experience - which forces him to re-evaluate his life.

Dan realizes that that was all that needed to happen.  Upon his return he finds out that Alan is now a very successful lawyer who champions the cases of those wrongfully incarcerated.

Dan also talks to Hugh and gets him to open up.  He realizes that Charlotte’s death was the one thing that woke Hugh up from his alcoholism.  Everything has a reason.

It’s all a happy ending until Dan gets home and Katie confronts him about Livia.  We end abruptly but we know where we’ll be starting next episode.

All in all another solid episode. The show’s pacing is a bit slow and deliberate, but it’s necessary to be the show it wants to be as it wants to explore all the possible nuances.  The characters are interesting enough to keep it afloat as are the relationships.  At this point though, more needs to be explained about Livia and they aren’t coming up with good reasons for them not to talk that don’t feel like plot devices.

B

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