Sunday, February 28, 2010

Classics: Early Edition 1:18 - Psychic

Plot Synopsis:

When Gary rushes into Claire Pflieger's shop to rescue both Claire and her client from a carbon monoxide leak, Claire immediately sees Gary's fortuitous appearance as an opportunity. Claire, you see, bills herself as a psychic, but her business is built mainly upon smoke-and-mirrors.

Convinced that Gary is a real clairvoyant, Claire follows our hero to the gym and then to the zoo (where she helps Gary rescue a child from a poisonous snake), all the while trying to convince Gary to become a partner in her business. Gary firmly refuses, however; he feels Claire is a huckster who takes advantage of the gullible and tells Claire as much when she follows him onto the El.

There are hints that Claire is about more than showmanship, however. When she lays her hand on a baby in a stroller after the snake-nabbing at the zoo, she immediately drops her P.T. Barnum attitude. Later, on the El, she freaks out the baby's mother by implying that her daughter might be in danger. When Gary questions her about her sudden change in demeanor, Claire laughs it off, but it is clear that something has disturbed her.

The following morning, Gary reads in his paper that the baby Claire touched will be abducted. When he fails to foil the kidnapping himself (thanks to a little distraction from Chuck), he goes to find Claire and discovers that she has closed down her shop; apparently, she has taken Gary's earlier rebuke to heart. Gary stops her at an intersection and asks her to tell him the next few cars that pass through without looking, which she does with 100% accuracy.

Now believing that Claire has some psychic ability after all, Gary asks her why she has chosen to hide behind the con-artist facade. Claire tells Gary that some years ago, she had a terrible premonition about a woman at the supermarket and was almost carted off to the funny farm when she tried to warn said woman about what she had seen. "It's easier to be a fraud," Claire finishes. Gary tells her she can't run from her talent and asks her to help find the missing baby.

At the Taylors, a deeply unsure Claire touches some of baby Rachel's things, but she feels nothing. Not wanting to waste the Taylors' time, she gets ready to leave - but near the door, she touches a scarf and gets a flash. She asks the Taylors about the owner of the scarf, and the Taylors tell her that they used to have a nanny. Claire concludes that the nanny must be involved somehow and recommends that they all go to the airport. There, they manage to capture the nanny before she leaves the city with baby Rachel.

In the end, Gary helps Claire re-open her shop. Claire once again asks Gary to join her, and Gary once again declines.

Overall: 6.5

Though it features a really great guest actress, Psychic is pretty underwhelming. After weeks spent in the stratosphere, I guess a regression to the mean was bound to happen eventually.

Writing: 6.5

A few moments here make me chuckle - for example, Claire's observations regarding Gary's "decorative" nose and scuffed up shoes, or Chuck's giving Gary a new cell phone and then distracting him by calling him constantly throughout the day - but there isn't much here that really deserves to be recorded in the highlights. Overall, the story falls under the category of "Cute, But Ordinary."

Acting: 8.0

I've loved Kathy Najimy ever since Sister Act. She's an adorable comic genius -- which is why it's a shame that she's been wasted here on a script that isn't all that outstanding. Still, she makes the best of what she's been given, portraying Claire with enough humanity that we as viewers are inspired to take pity on her.

Message: 5.0

Thematically, Psychic starts off in Early Edition's usual grain. Prominent among the episode's motifs, for example, is the question of one's true calling. Claire, like Gary, has the ability to see the future, but the responsibility - the Cross, in other words - attached to this talent is so frightening to her that for the past few years, she has retreated into her more comfortable circus show. When Gary scolds Claire for living a lie and Claire responds by taking stock and closing down her shop, it really appears, in that moment, that the show will take us on a journey of genuine vocational discernment - a journey during which Claire will learn exactly what her talents should truly be used for.

Unfortunately, this set-up is undermined in the episode's final scenes, in which we see Claire re-open her shop and fiddle with her machine-generated apparition. Why would she return to what she knows is false now that she has discovered just how much good she can do by being sober and sincere? Why would she decide to continue leading people to believe in an illusion? Even if this illusion entertains people and gives them "hope," I really take issue with the notion, implied by this ending and explicitly expressed by Marissa in an earlier scene, that hope is something wonderful regardless of whether it is tied to something true. False hope is what has gotten our country into its current mess and is certainly not something we should champion.

The Benevolent Hand:

There's no denying that without Claire's help, Gary probably would never have found Rachel Taylor. So certainly the Benevolent Hand must have had something to do with the gas leak that brings Gary and Claire together to begin with.

Highlights:

CLAIRE: About six or seven years ago, I was in the supermarket, and... I run my cart right into this woman. And I'm helping her to her feet when - boom! I'm not looking at her anymore. I'm looking at this deserted field somewhere... and she's there, only... she's not alive. And so... I try to warn her. She looks at me like I'm nuts. And I'm trying to tell her what I see, and her kids are crying. I mean, they're scared to death because I'm saying somebody's gonna kill mommy. She can't get away from me quick enough... and she calls store security, and the cops come, and I'm still talking, but... nobody's listening. They just don't want to hear it.
GARY: So what happened?
CLAIRE: I stopped talking before they wrote me off as psychotic or had me arrested.
GARY: I meant the woman. What happened to the woman?
CLAIRE: I never saw her again. I never even asked her name.
GARY: So you don't know if what you saw... if that ever happened.
CLAIRE: (shaking her head) I mean, once in a while, you read in the papers about some body, unidentified, turning up in some field somewhere, but no. I had to stop reading the papers.
GARY: And you decided to make a living.
CLAIRE: It's easier to be a fraud - a novelty act - especially if you're a good one. People will pay good money to see a dancing bear.
GARY: Claire - you're the real thing. Whatever this, uh -
CLAIRE: Please don't call it a gift.
GARY: All right. But whatever it is... I mean, that's not something you can hide from. That's not something you can pretend doesn't exist. That's something that follows you the rest of your life.

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