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2005-03-27 Entry: "Mucho Pretender-o"

I should probably interleave it with something else, but I make most progress with I focus on a single show, so lets continue with The Pretender for a bit longer.

And we kick off this morning with "A Virus Among Us" which sees Jarod as a virologist, helpfully giving Miss Parker the flu to keep her off his trail. Sidney receives a box containing clippings of all the things that Jarod's research has done - and he sets out looking for forgiveness.

"Not Even A Mouse" is the Christmas episode... Jarod takes a job as a medical examiner to get to the bottom of the death of a homeless man. Sydney has a brother in a hospital who's been unconscious for 30 years and he goes to see him every year. Miss Parker is going to spend the holiday with her father, but obviously he cancels at the last minute.

"Mirage" sees Jarod wandering around the desert... or is he a skydiver? We have guest star Kate Hodge (last seen in Level 9) as the owner of the skydiving school. And we have him sending one of his little books to Miss Parker - all about her own life. I obviously got distracted during this episode, as I have no idea what was going on in the Miss Parker B storyline... something about her mother and a boarding house in Maine...

"Better Part Of Valor" sees Jarod as a firefighter. It also sees the first appearance of the savant, Angelo, on loan from Mr Raines to track Jarod via his choice of newspaper stories. Miss Parker hooks up with some salesman guy. Of course, the guy turns out to be working for the Center in opposition to Miss Parker.

"Bomb Squad" sees Jarod join the titular group. Meanwhile, Mr. Raines is looking for the leak in the Center, subjecting Parker, Sydney and Broots through lie detector tests with Angelo checking their veracity. Broots turns out to be in a custody battle over his daughter... which he hasn't told the Center about; and Angelo is the leak, although no-one knows that currently.

"A Prison Story" sees Jarod as prison guard, to help an innocent man on death row. His games lead Miss Parker to a Monopoly themed hotel, where they discover that her feelings about Jarod have given her an ulcer.

"Bazooka Jarod" sees Jarod as a Naval Commander, attempting to get to the bottom of the death of a seaman. Miss Parker is dooing some digging through missing children records for details on her and her mother. Unfortunately, Jarod got there first, and is keeping the secret for later bargaining power.

"Ranger Jarod" sees him get involved in the search for a missing student, lost on a mountain for five days. The episode is really an excuse for him to get a girlfriend and agonise over his feelings about women. We find out that Miss Parker told Jarod her first name when they were children, and that she was clearly attracted to him at one time...

"Jaroldo" sees Jarod as a news cameraman, looking for the truth about a man who lost use of his arm. Did the reporter set up the gang conflict so he could get a story? Miss Parker and Sydney get mugged by a couple of gang members and Sydney is accidentally shot in the leg. They're then trapped in a building that is set for demolition. This episode has a recognizable guest cast - Lisa Howard (previously seen in Highlander The Series), Gregory Itzin (who's been in lots of things but hasn't had a starring role), and Michael B Silver (who's had a few guest appearances in ER and CSI: Miami).

For a moment I thought the disc was seriously defective there - the picture started freezing up - but swapping DVD players, it appears to play fine on the other one.

"Under The Reds" sees Jarod in the role of paramedic, looking to help a student wrestler who's in a coma. He's done some research that might help Sydney's brother out of his own coma, but the cure proves temporary... it does lead to a hint at SL-27, whatever that is... And Mr Raines gives Parker the order to kill the brother.

"Keys" sees Miss Parker down in Florida looking in to a sighting of Jarod learning gator-wrestling. She gets some pictures of her mother, who appears to have been beaten at some point. The hurricane here is pretty much just set dressing for Miss Parker to get her memory back of the beating... at the hands of Mr Raines.

"Unhappy Landing" sees Jarod as a Federal Marshall, while Miss Parker is enlisting Broots to track down the children that her mother rescued from the Center. Of course, we still don't know who the other six she failed to rescue are. Jarod apparently had a friend while in the Center - Kyle - who he insisted he be introduced to. Parker's investigation leads to a dead end (but with another hint at SL-27).

Of course, I then had to stop to watch the slightly silly "Alien Apocalypse" on Sci-Fi... it was nice to see Bruce Campbell and Renee O'Connor back together again, but otherwise this was a bit thin.