March 4, 2007: What If It's Him?
Well, here we are, finally at the end of Brett's long journey (it's taken a little longer than expected thanks to
ABC.com's erratic schedule, but I digress). There is a little bit of disappointment when you realize that the show's producers were hoping for a second season of the show and left a couple of plot threads hanging just in case there were more episodes on the horizon. It's nothing major, and I still think this was an awesome episode, but I guess this serves as a reminder that whenever you work in the television industry you never know how things will end up. That last image in particular is sure to have fans of the shows debating its meaning (I'll get to that later).
The first few scenes of this episode seem like more of the same: Brett using his knowledge to move through the day as efficiently as possible and save a number of people in the process. In the span of just a few minutes he manages to get immediate medical assistance to the bus driver who's about to have a stroke, prevent Margo from being hit by said bus, and even uses the commotion to handcuff Chad to the grating of a gutter and make a run for it. Jack Bauer couldn't have done it better himself.
But then we finally get some new revelations: Brett is able to convince Choi that he's being framed and interrogates Mrs. Garza, whom we learn is the one who started this whole mess in the first place. Turns out that she convinced her husband not to testify, and by passing certain information on to her lover Tobias Booth, ensured that her husband would be killed and that Brett Hopper would be framed for the murder so that the evidence Garza sent to him would never see the light of day. This confession finally exonerates Hopper, but convinces the members of the conspiracy that they need to bring an end to everything. No more fooling around destroy everyone and everything.
Unfortunately for the conspiracy, they set up the wrong person to kill Hopper Damien. It was a bit confusing when Damien pistol-whipped Hopper and then just left him to wake up in the back of a pick-up truck in a parking garage. Clearly Damien realized that Hopper wasn't the one who betrayed him, but when did he have his change of heart if he still attacked Brett? The fact that all of this didn't add up was what made me realize that the one of the final scenes of this episode had to address the Damien/Uncle Nick storyline and bring us some closure to why everything happened.
As it turns out, Damien liked Hopper too much too take him out without checking his facts. I wasn't totally clear on what Baxter would have said that cleared Hopper of selling Damien out, but the end result is the same: Uncle Nick is the one who ratted out the safe house, killed Hopper Senior and made it look like a suicide, and even tried to have Brett murdered. Pathetically, he even begs for his life as Brett walks away. "Think of your father!" I loved Brett's cold response, even more ironic given his time-repeating. "I do. Every day." There's a part of me that thinks maybe Brett should have taken the moral high ground and had Nick sent to prison instead of letting Damien execute him, but given the amount of pain he's caused in Hopper's life, you can understand why he doesn't even look back.
And I almost forgot to mention one of my favorite moments: Brett's sudden realization that he's made it to tomorrow after awakening from the back of the pick-up. Maybe the endlessly repeating day of his life was just a means of setting up
this day, when everything important happens. That's the real reason why Brett had to keep reliving the day, even when he solved Garza's murder. This is about something much larger than just him, and if he had gotten to see tomorrow then, the conspiracy still would have won. Instead, their goon squad rushes into an empty courtroom and is taken down by a SWAT team led by Andrea. Nice. I also appreciate the crazy montage of punishment where we see what happens to nearly all of the bad guys. For those keeping score: Tobias Booth goes to prison, Detweiler kills himself with a shotgun, Chad escapes from custody after beating up the officer assigned to escort him through the police station, Mrs. Garza is killed, the Crying Man seems to escape (he unlocks his chains and produces a gun, so I think that's what we're meant to assume), and Spivak is finally revealed to be just misdirection, since Chad is the one who planted the fingerprints on the "murder weapon." Only Barry Colburn gets away with everything, but at least he tells Brett who's responsible for his dad's murder.
And of course, there's that last image in the episode, of a mysterious man we've never met before watching Brett, Rita and Jennifer from a distance with an air of detachment. Or maybe we have met him. Although I've checked the credits for this episode everywhere I could think of, I haven't been able to tell if this guy is the same actor who played Jared Pryor. They look vaguely similar, but business suit guy's beard is different and makes it hard to get a good look at his facial features. Whether or not this guy is Jared, the larger question of who he
really is remains. I like some of the theories that have been posted already in the feedback. Maybe he's the spirit of the city itself, who chose Brett Hopper to right the wrongs that had been corrupting it for years. Or maybe he's a reference to some plotline that the show's creators were hoping to use next season. We'll never know. But maybe that's for the best. After all, what's a good mystery without a few pieces missing to keep you guessing?
