Episode 208 'The Escape Artist' Comments

Ep 208 The Escape Artist


“If I only knew then what I know now.” – Georgia Lass

George: He’s my first boyfriend.
Daisy: Well…..It’s a little risky, Georgia.
George: What have I got to lose?
Daisy: …….Everything.

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The restructuring of Fuller’s original vision for the ‘Dead Like Me’ characters and their universe is well along here, but still in process. Overall in S2 there’s very clear direction to the major themes and story developments – a direction more clear than in the post Fuller S1 episodes - and also there are plenty of carefully placed elements thru-out S2 pointing to the major plot directions likely to have occupied S3 (and beyond?). The still in process part would be taking us to character development and story arc ends much farther along than what we saw by the end of S2.

In this particular episode we can see the taking apart and rearranging of that original vision. The fringe aspect of Fuller’s reaper world that was so central in the pilot is pretty much gone. These reapers and the universe they inhabit have undergone major changes. In particular, even tho in this evolving universe the reapers will not be constrained to a dark existence apart from the living world, that participation has boundaries, and some of the more ominous implications of that power that enforces those boundaries will need to be brought back for the later S3. In this episode we get just a declaration of this change in direction in Daisy’s single word – ‘Everything’.

We get some further adjustments to all of our reaper characters except Roxy.

In George’s case she’s ready to aspire to the country club set. The opening Georgia voice over starts off with talk about clubs, but this is to carry the headline arc introducing George’s pining for a first boy friend – a member of a country club - rich, witty, and handsome.

Mason is again hung with the dumb label while George is getting pushed up front as being loaded with smarts. Mason loses it after receiving a postit (with Roxy) for a couple of deaths on a plane with a Cancun (he’s never flown and can’t swim) destination. George immediately deduces that with only two deaths the plane won’t crash.

Even tho Rube does not have a huge load to carry in this episode (he’s a substitute teacher reaping a janitor at an elementary school) what we learn about him is an important part of the set up for the unlayering of his background story later. There are four of these elements in this episode - three in this opening booth scene alone are mentioned and a fourth is stuck in towards the very end.

The first is when he insists on moving the gang away from the crying baby. This is yet another example of his very bad reaction to crying babies (remember in the airport he had to write out an apology after he was overheard contemplating killing a crying baby). This is so persistent that it was likely to become important later revealing some role in decisions taken in his background (that probably ended badly). And in this episode given his dislike for kids the PTB give him a reap at a school where we learn kids like him. Note he again asserts he does not decide who gets what reap and surely if it were up to him he would not go to a school.

And then there is his odd reaction to religion. Now that Daisy has abandoned her Catholicism, Rube and her are best buddies right from the opening booth scene. Rube and she go off on a reap together! And pose as father/daughter! Rube consistently likes to talk about far away tribes and their religious practices involving death. However, whenever religious matters come up closer to home - i.e. Judeo-Christian – and this got personified by Daisy’s fling with religion, he reacted badly and with a short temper. Really odd because he often uses these distant tribes and their religious customs as examples to try and explain to George some obscure point somehow connected to her behaving, which she generally doesn’t get and clearly does not appreciate. Rube generally has not so far cared for Daisy, so this best buddies pairing stands out. Probably it’s telling us something about Rube’s relationship with religion and not so much about the relationship between these two, but this switch in tone between the two is dramatic and odd and so it naturally leads to the suspicion it’s somehow connected to his problem with certain close to home religion.

The third point shown to us about Rube is that after decades of WH breakfasts he tells his gang he’s already had breakfast at another diner. Seems innocent enough, but given Rube is a reaper who thrives on his compartmentalized routines, it’s probably another indication that the PTB’s manipulations (#1 George and #2 the return of the envelope) are having an effect on Rube.

The fourth point -towards the very end of this episode - we see a very brief scene with Rube busy making phone calls at a table in his apartment stacked with several large open telephone books. We can guess he’s tracking down his wife and daughter – something very much against the reaper code. Rube is cracking. It’s predictable and entirely due to the PTB.

Also here we get exposed again to just how different Joy and her own mother are, and yet towards the end they find agreement in their common worry over Reggie. Reggie reveals to Grandma that she met a boy at school (OK) that she thinks knows George (not OK).

That boy of course is Charlie the pet reaper that we saw at the end of S1 with Delores’ cat Murray and his close call at the vet’s. Notice that like the prior episode there’s no room for Happy Time and Delores here.

Charlie and Reggie are important – more so than Trip and the preparations for the fling with George. Trip is the natural playing out of the taking something back theme and was set up in the first episode in S2 with the talk about George’s virginity – very entertaining for a few episodes, but this arc ends when George gets over Trip’s leaving. Charlie and Reggie tho are setting up the main arcs that were to come in S3.

The elementary school Komodo dragon and janitor reaps by Charlie and Rube brought three reapers into the same room with Reggie – Charlie, Rube, and Daisy. This common meeting would have been used later. For example, in ep 213 ‘Last Call’ at minute 7 there’s a close call when Reggie, Clancy, Rube, Daisy, and George are all in the WH at the same time, but only Rube makes the connections. This close call was likely an exercise of sorts preparing the audience for just this sort of later development. Rube’s actions here are telling us how important it is that they all stay apart.

And of course in this episode Reggie picks up several tidbits of unexplained evidence that no doubt would have been used later. She notices Charlie’s slip when he said he’s been dead for seven years. Charlie has no idea about the Lord of the Rings (the Frodo and hobbit reference) and yet he knows George. While it’s possible a kid who is not attending school could still be reading newspapers and could therefore know about George’s toilet seat death, how could he then have missed the reference to the LOTR movies? And finally it’s pointedly shown to us (when she asks him about it) that Reggie notices that Charlie went out of his way to touch the dragon. Reggie has that curious and potentially dangerous ability to see and hear what’s there vs what convention dictates she should see and hear – a young Holmes. There are a lot of bits left here that we would have seen used later as Reggie tracked down George via one or all three of the reapers, observed their goings on, and saw and heard the reality of what and who they are – including eventually her sister.

The Trip and George get together is very entertaining and moving and it’s really well done, but as mentioned, something like this was to be expected from the earlier set ups this season. However, there was an unexpected and odd little possible hint of PTB interference / manipulation in connection with the reap of Trip’s father not unlike we’ve already seen. And it’s typically understated.

George’s postit says she will meet her reap in the ‘Card Room’ at the country club. She dutifully goes there and meets Trip. When she hears Trip’s name she assumes he is her intended reap, panics (Trip is after all the only one with that name in the Card Room), and runs outside where Trip catches up to her and she then meets his father – the actual intended reap –and she takes his soul. In the process we’re shown the postit (unnecessarily since we the audience aren’t confused about the names by this point), but it does clearly show us that the reap was to take place in the Card Room. The father never goes into the Card Room, and George certainly did not have to go there to find the father. So the possibility is left to ponder that the forbidden fling with Trip was engineered by the PTB by their deliberate misstatement of the reap location.

Roxy and Mason end up sitting in a plane waiting for their reaps to die and never do get to go to Cancun, but we learn that Mason has never flown before, which raises the question if he died in the UK (likely, but not a fact) how did he get to Seattle?

Two final items. We get another example of what seems to be a habit for George to call home to listen to the voices of her family. We know from prior episodes that this goes on and that Reggie believes the caller is George whereas Joy sees these calls as pranks and annoying. Grandma picks up the phone in this episode and probably unusually George ventures to exchange a few words her. She seems to try to say something and falters (PTB auto interference?) but does get a few words out. Clearly Grandma feels something tickling her, but what she thinks is left ambiguous- it’s not enough.

The most important dialogue stands out for not fitting in the episode except perhaps as preparation for something to come later. I see it as an important element in warning of that darker side of reaper circumstances intended to balance or redirect from the move in S2 to upgrade our reapers from the fringe and involve them with guys like Trip and country clubs. The more involved with and among the living the reapers are the more certain and precise the means by the PTB needs to be to keep any knowledge of the reapers away from the living. Anyway, at minute 36 George enters the WH where we find Rube and Daisy hanging out together. We get another affirmation of the family/fatherly connection when Rube orders a hot oatmeal cookie for George and leaves George and Daisy together. Then this exchange occurs – very friendly with the very odd twist at the end.

G: What’s up with him?
D: I’m not sure. We were at a school today.
He acts really strange around kids. (A hint that Rube’s 80 years of compartmentalization is breaking down.)
G: Hmm.
D: Stranger.
How was the Montgomery Club?
G: Stuffy, entitled, b*llsh*t.
I really liked it.
D: Hmm. I so really proud of you.
G: I think I’m gonna go back.
G: Hmm. What’s his name?
G: Trip
D: Trip!
Kiffany: Here you go Sweetheart.
G: Thank you, Kiffany.
D: Trip
G: I kissed him.
And then I reaped his dad.
D: Complicated.
Good kisser?
G: Hmmm. Smart. Funny.
D: Money?
G: Please.
Up until his dad died I thought he was gonna be my first boyfriend.
D: Huh mm. And now?
G: He’s my first boyfriend.
D: Well…..It’s a little risky, Georgia.
G: What have I got to lose?
D: …….Everything.

(George gets a puzzled look on her face.)

Given Daisy’s history in the series as far as interactions (reputed) with the living, it is very odd that she would be chosen to deliver this warning to George about her seemingly mild interaction (kissing – so far) with Trip. It makes it stand out all the more and it stands alone and unexplained. George’s puzzled reaction is a clear signal to the audience that we should be puzzled too, but we never find out why. Likely this was to be used in the S3 and maybe then it would have been more clear what that threat meant.