Classics: Early Edition 2:16 - Where or When

Overall: 8.2

We circle back to Early Edition's usual standard with this, another Jimmy Stewart homage that is peppered with interesting divine interventions.

Plot Synopsis:

As Gary is attempting to retrieve a girl's teddy bear from a scaffold at a construction site, he suddenly has a vision of a red-headed woman dressed in 1940's attire. The vision distracts him so much that he falls off the scaffold and breaks his leg. Consequently, for the remainder of the episode, Gary is confined to a wheelchair and is forced to send Chuck out to take care of some of the paper's life-or-death stories. As you might expect, Gary doesn't take too well to being cooped up inside all day - especially since his radiator is malfunctioning - and he eventually decides to relieve his extreme boredom by watching the people who live in the apartment building next door. Yes, as you've probably guessed already, this episode is Early Edition's version of Rear Window.

Things take a turn for the interesting when Marissa hires a new waitress, Anne. Anne, you see, is the spitting image of the woman Gary keeps seeing both in visions and in his dreams. Gary insists that he has met Anne before, and Chuck and Marissa chalk it up to the Darvocet. The following morning, however, Gary sees a headline in the paper that reports that Anne will be shot (or so he thinks). He looks into the building next door and sees an elderly gentleman - the same gentleman he saw snooping around in Anne's new apartment the previous day - sell another man a gun. Panicked, he calls Crumb, waking the retired detective up and demanding that he come over right away. Crumb does, and discovers that the man buying the gun - Malone - is in the midst of conducting research for a new mystery novel - and that the elderly gentleman - Sinclair - is Anne's landlord. Crumb is both annoyed and amused; Gary is embarrassed, but he is certain he read the paper right. He shows the headline to Chuck, and Chuck notices that the paper is not the usual early edition. Instead, it is a paper from 1944.

The murder victim described in the paper is a USO girl named Daria Delongpre, and she was Anne's late grandmother. Anne is shocked to learn that her grandmother was killed; her own mother had told her something completely different. The shooting took place at McGinty's, so while Anne takes a day off to process this new information, Gary sends Chuck down into the basement to look for clues, as Daria's murder was never solved.

That night, Gary has the most vivid dream yet. He dreams he is slow dancing with Daria at McGinty's, and throughout the dream, he hears Daria singing "Where or When": "Things that have happened for the first time/Seem to be happening again." The next morning, he wakes up and realizes that his dreams have been trying to tell him something. When the paper arrives, he yells at Chuck to go get it, and sure enough, he discovers that Anne will be killed in her apartment later that day. Subsequently, Gary sends Chuck out to prevent Anne from returning home while he struggles to figure out who might have a motive to kill her. It is at this time that Cat gives him a little help, knocking over a box and revealing a picture of a younger Sinclair smiling at Daria. Gary concludes then that Sinclair killed Daria and will kill Anne, and while Marissa calls the police, he tries to call Chuck to warn him. Chuck, however, has already been knocked unconscious by an unknown assailant. He next tries to phone Anne, but he gets a busy signal, as Anne is chatting amiably with someone else. Then, finally, he decides to confront Sinclair. Gary calls the old landlord and tells him that he knows everything. Sinclair tells Gary he doesn't know what Gary's talking about.

However, a short time later, Sinclair arrives at Gary's and explains that he was not the one who shot Daria Delongpre. In fact, it was Mrs. Sinclair who killed Daria in a jealous rage. Across the way, Mrs. Sinclair enters Anne's apartment with a plate of cookies, then pulls out a gun and threatens to kill Anne. Fortunately, she is stopped and disarmed by Crumb. Later, Anne forgives Sinclair for keeping his wife's involvement in her grandmother's murder a secret, then decides to move back to Muncy. Though she is touched to find city folk who were so willing to look out for her, Chicago has turned out to be a far too exciting place for her to call home. Before she leaves, however, she gives Gary a letter written by a soldier who served with her grandfather during the war. The soldier reports that Anne's grandfather knew that the Japanese were about to launch a sneak attack before it happened, a fact that is interesting in itself. Then Gary looks at the enclosed photograph and is shocked to discover that Anne's grandfather and he are practically twins.

The Skinny:

This episode succeeds where last week's did not because it gives us more tantalizing hints regarding the paper's history and ultimate Source without attempting to fully explain why it exists. We can be reasonably certain now that Lucius Snow's predecessor fought and died during World War II. We've also received further confirmation that the Force behind the paper looks after the unfinished business of the paper's recipients. That's good news for Chuck and Marissa if they should happen to survive Gary. Lastly, it should be noted that Gary's connection to the supernatural here is not confined to a few lines of newsprint. His status as a "chosen one," so to speak, also enables him to communicate with God through visions and dreams.

Gary's ennui in the opening scenes is extremely relateable. I particularly love that moment in which we see Gary, his eyes glazed over, flipping randomly through the wasteland of daytime television. Who hasn't been there before? The concept of the episode - that Gary must use his resources to lay an unavenged soul to rest - is also solid - and pleasingly romantic. And who wouldn't appreciate the writers' continued emulation of Hollywood's Golden Age? Again, the visual and verbal references to some of the old greats add a lot of charm. Though it's a little lacking in stand-out dialogue, the story in this episode is, on the whole, very likable and very classically Early Edition.

Writing: 8.0

This script is quiet and unassuming. As I said, it doesn't have much in the way of clever dialogue, but the concept is sound.

Acting: 8.5

Kyle Chandler does boredom - and later, chagrin and fear - very well.

Message: 8.0

There is no explicit message in this episode. The whole story, however, functions on the premise that Divine Providence exists. See below.

The Benevolent Hand:

This episode is a very God-filled episode without, again, preaching one faith in particular. It is difficult to point to any one event in this story that is not directed by the Benevolent Hand in some way. We have Gary's dreams, of course, but we also have Cat's revealing a clue at a critical moment and the appearance of the 1944 edition of the paper to add to the list.