This episode leads the cause and effect of Dan’s actions in the past and how it changes the present. It continues the trend of showing how the past and present tie to each other so perfectly instead of just lightly treading on it.
The Past
Dan shows up in an illegal rave party and stumbles upon an Emily Kelso, a girl who disappeared in 1992 but was never found. Dan also finds the man responsible for kidnapping her as well as a mysteriously similar kidnapping and murder of a girl 9 years later. The man Bennett is a real estate man in San Francisco and continues to be in the present.
Dan and Livia wind up finding Emily several years down the line after he saves her. She is now 15 but is out on the streets cutting hair, running away from every one of her foster homes. They take her in and help her get placed into another foster home, promising it’ll be better.
However, their next encounter shows that their previous attempt to help Emily was unsuccessful. In 2001, she has already gathered herself an impressive sheet, including drug dealings. They try to save her again, and it turns out that Bennett solicited Emily in a 976 phone call. Bennett winds up doing the same with other girls as early as 1995.
He is angry and asks Livia for the keys to the car so he can confront Bennett. Livia tries to stop him but while not explaining why she believes it is a bad idea, she tells him that it does not end well. Previous arguments in this episode between the two of them end the same way: Dan asks for an explanation as to why Livia is being so reluctant to let Dan divert his mission from saving one person and making it better for others down the line, she tells him that it’s not a good idea.
Refusing Livia’s advice, Dan confronts Bennett in 2001 and ties him up and finds the girl he kidnaps and plans to kill that year. Bennett is eventually jailed and sentenced to 10 years.
The Present
Zach is having problems in school. He seems to be disruptive and starting fights. The head teacher tells Katie that if he does not clean up his behavior, he will be suspended. Turns out Zach is being the sheriff of the playground. This one kid keeps stealing other children’s things, and Zach is the only one with the guts to stand up to him. Good for the son, bad for the parents.
He is also having problems dealing with his dad’s “magic,” as he witnessed several episodes back. Dan’s been gone so often lately, Zach pretends to disappear just to get his dad’s attention.
Zach is not the only one who is having problems with Dan’s traveling, either. Katie tells Dan that while she’s been trying very hard to be supportive of Dan’s traveling, she tells him it is getting harder on her. She also wants his problem diagnosed so he can get it fixed and become a permanent staple in the family again.
Meanwhile, Jack talks to his girlfriend who says that he may be schizophrenic and needs help. Jack is reluctant to believe this diagnosis. While he struggles with Dan’s possibility of in need of some psychiatric help, Dan asks him for a favor of helping him track Bennett in the present.
As Jack helps him, he seems to feel better towards Dan and his reasons for being suspicious. While Jack’s girlfriend seems a little surprised at Jack’s willingness to help Dan with Bennett, Jack seems to finally not be so lost when it comes to his brother. He and Dan are sort of on a non-hostile relationship for the first time in a while.
However, all of this is lost after Dan “catches” Bennett back in 2001. As a result of Bennett’s capture in the past, the conversations, murder of the girl, and Jack’s improved feelings towards Dan have disappeared. As a result, Jack suggests to Dan to go see a psychiatrist, well more like forces, and tells him to show up or he’ll file a 1550 on him and have him locked up for being crazy. Dan agrees to go to the psychiatrist just to please Jack.
You will be happy to know that Emily Kelso is great in the present. Remember how she was cutting people’s hair on the streets? Well, she’s putting it to good use by running her own hair cuttery by the name of “Kelso Kutz.”
As for Bennett, he is let out of jail 4 years earlier than sentenced for good behavior. As Dan returns home, we see Bennett watching his house, visibly older and harder than when we last saw him in 2001. If the previews for next week are any indication, Livia’s pleas to not divert from his primary mission of helping Emily turns out to be warranted after all.
Hopefully they’ll reveal more of Livia and how she knows that diverting from the mission is not a good idea. Could she be referring to her staying with Dan as an ending that did not end well?
Also, FBI Agent Garrity continues his trek to find out how the Dylan McClean money found in Dan’s house traces back to the “counterfeit” 2003 series $20 bill that Jack filed back in the 1995. Garrity talks to Hugh and also looks at Dan’s iPhone browser history. What Garrity will piece together from the browser history remains to be seen.
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