Dan interrupts a wedding rehearsal in the past while he was fixing the upstairs bathroom in the present. He leaves and goes to a bar nearby called Luna. The episode name refers to Dan’s encounter with Katie’s news report regarding a Chinese restaurant. This is what leads Dan to go into the bar in the first place.
While having a drink he meets a woman named Melissa Waters who is waiting for a blind date she met online. She mistakes Dan for William, who described himself as blonde, handsome, and in-shape. He was totally the opposite when they actually show him. It seems that people on dating sites lied even during the initial takeoff of the internet. That’s unbelievable.
Dan and Melissa are interrupted by her ex-boyfriend’s stalker self. A quick fistfight between Dan and the man named Gregory Weil breaks out and both are thrown out of the bar. We later find out that Gregory is actually a police officer and is an integral piece to the episode.
Flash forward to later in the 90s, Dan comes again to Luna to see if he will by chance see Melissa. Instead, he sees William buying a gun from a man in an alley. On his way out of the alley, he encounters Melissa and William exchanging a kiss as she goes to her car. Turns out they are engaged now and have even started an online brokerage website called Utrademart.com together. He alerts her of the gun-buying situation, but Melissa quickly covers for him. Dan apologizes, and leaves.
Turns out on a fateful night in 1999, Melissa is murdered with her ex-boyfriend Gregory Weil charged with the murder, although the charges were later dropped. It later turns out that the business that Melissa and William has sunk with all of the money gone. During an argument where William wants a disc containing all of the finances, he pulls a gun out of frustration. Dan, who found their business from a business card he requested, pops out and saves her. He doesn’t seem to have made the situation any better, though: Melissa was charged for the murder of her husband.
Returning to the same night later in the episode, Dan finds Gregory and alerts him of his ex-girlfriend’s danger. They arrive at the company’s office just in time to see Melissa killing William with the gun that he had purchased for her earlier in the episode.
Melissa is a mess and Gregory attempts to console her. She tells Gregory that William tried to kill her earlier and that Dan can testify to that. Dan, regrettably tells her he cannot. However, Dan makes things right by planting the gun William used earlier in the night in William’s hands to make it seem as if she killed him in self defense.
During the time this madness is going on in the past, Dan is exploring possibilities about his time traveling, including tachyons, which are particles that travel at superluminal velocity. He gets in touch with a man named Elliot Langley. Langley alerts Dan he is very in-tune with Dan’s writing and his father’s due to his long-subscriber status of the Register newspaper.
Langley was very suspicious. To make things even more suspicious, Langley calls Dan on his 1990s phone and acts like everything is normal. What kind of conspiracy is this? Dan’s previous attempt to set up a visit with Langley was met with a “I believe you’ll encounter security problems.” That sounds interesting, to say the least, and will undoubtedly reveal a large chunk of the reason how and maybe even why Dan and Livia travel into the past. I look forward to seeing Mr. Langley later down the line.
Speaking of Livia, she reveals she is jealous of Katie and Dan’s marriage. However, she accepts it. Livia did not play that big of a role in this episode except for playing decoy with 1999 Katie, who was still a reporter back then. I would really like to know more about the present Livia, though, and while she helps out here and there, her character should be explored a bit more.
Katie is stressed about her upcoming black tie “Art Meets Science Gala.” Dan promises Katie he will be there, but she is upset that he cannot guarantee that. She is also having problems coping with his ongoing revelations of seeing Livia. As the episode progresses, Dan reveals that he sees Livia on a regular basis when he travels. Katie is seen to have more trouble coping with this idea.
The character that is Jack Vassar is explored a little more. He starts out with meeting an attractive female doctor at Luna for a first date. Everything does not turn out as well as planned, but she seems interested. When it was time for the gala, Dan disappears from the house bathroom but not before writing “Sorry” on the mirror for Katie to see.
Jack to the rescue! He escorts her to the gala and due to Katie’s continued frustration with trying to cope with Dan’s traveling, Katie seems to want to long for somebody more stable. This is an interesting piece since this is the complete opposite of what Livia reveals in the episode: Jack was a bad boy and not stable while Dan was a very stable person.
Jack has also experienced Dan’s time travels firsthand, whether he knows it or not. After seeing Katie troubled, Jack confronts Dan about his actions. They are interrupted but when Jack returns to resume the conversation, Dan has already traveled back.
Oh, and don’t worry about Katie and Dan, they make up. In the convention center’s coat room.
This was a strong episode, and I enjoyed the fact that they used the same-day thing from last week’s episode in this episode with the traditional structure. I hope to also see more character development of the supporting characters in the past. Jack was a good start, but I am more interested in seeing more of the present life of Livia.
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