A Fond Farewell to Eli Stone
I've been going on and on lately about how much ABC's
Eli Stone has grown on me, especially in the last few weeks- ironically, the show finding its truest voice around the time it lost new episodes of
Lost as a lead-in, par for the course in this frustrating strike-warped midseason. Tonight,
Eli signs off after its 13-episode tryout, and if you can watch it unmoved, maybe this really isn't the show for you.
Last week, Eli (the charming Jonny Lee Miller) shook everyone's world by correctly predicting an earthquake. This week, his own world is shaken when he decides to risk dangerous surgery to remove his aneurism (which could be the cause of his quirky and often musical visions). Eli isn't so much worried about living or dying. "The something in-between is what scares me," he says, and he's not talking about the show being on the proverbial "bubble" for renewal. (I'm glad my pal Michael Ausiello
shares my high hopes of the show returning next season. He's rarely wrong.)
As Eli prepares for surgery, he puts his fate in his doctor brother Nate's hands. And as fans of the show know, scenes between Miller and Matt Letscher (Nate) are always super-charged with emotion, especially since his brother began to see the light of something divine (as opposed to medical) in his brother's visions. The recent episode in which Eli relived their father's death through Nate's eyes was one of the major turning points for a show that has become as affecting as it is entertaining. Watching his brother and his law-firm boss Jordan (the wonderful Victor Garber) become converts to Eli's humanistic-prophet act has given the series an emphatic feel-good thrill.
Tears will flow as the various supporting characters gather around Eli, fretting over his fate and reflecting on how much he has changed their lives and lifted their burdens. This week's legal subplot, an emotional knockout featuring
The West Wing's Richard Schiff in one of his best post-Toby performances, is about a man dying of cancer and refusing a new round of treatment because God "spoke" to him in "a moment of clarity. I had peace." Both the client and Eli come to the realization: "If I never got sick, I'd still be asleep."
Which all leads to one last production number, one last vision of George Michael, and one last demonstration of how to juggle show-stopping whimsy and unabashed heart in a thoroughly winning package. This episode also is a perfect example of how to end a season when you're not sure the show itself has a future. It leaves you hanging in all the right ways, convincing you there is much more story to tell even as it satisfies you that it has told the introductory chapter and wrapped it up as well as humanly possible.
