Tru Calling/Recap/S1/E02 Putting Out Fires/Analysis

Well, that was different. The pacing in this episode was a lot less frantic than the first. There is character building, dialog, etc.

However, it still feels a bit rushed. That mostly comes from how Tru's relationship with Evans and Nick plays out.

Then there's the fact that this episode is a strong indicator that Tru's whole "doesn't fall for guys that often" line is a blatant fabrication. Yes, it was a rebound hookup, but it was still an entirely unnecessary line that could have been excised to avoid a bit of Fridge Logic.

Fortunately, the episode ended well enough to make all of these oddities meaningless. I mean, the guy dies. And stays that way; he's not coming back next episode.

It points to one of the strengths of this particular Applied Phlebotinum: Tru can't control it. She can't game it to save anyone she cares about. In fact, this episode reveals an interesting part of the ability: that the person who asks for help isn't even necessarily the one that needs to be saved. That people can ask for help on behalf of others.

This will come up again in the future. Actually, quite a few times. There's even an episode in season 2 where... well, we'll get to that in due time ;)

There are two interesting things to note in this episode. The double-exchange between Lindsay and Tru is particularly interesting. The fact that Lindsay suggests a course of action that she herself couldn't do was very telling of her character. But the important point here is that Lindsay lied about how she said that she would have done it. Tru learned a little something about Lindsay that double-day.

The other interesting thing is structurally with regard to Tru's powers. Because she can't control it, there is usually a very short time between encountering a body and jumping back a day. Which means that Tru is often given very few clues to work with. In this particular episode, the writers basically have Gardez and Davis Info Dump a bunch of facts on Tru in about 5 minutes. It's kind of crudely done, but it's effective enough in this episode. Later episodes will be a bit more circumspect about what information Tru gets to work with. They'll also play with just how much info Tru gets before her "Calling" kicks in.