Tru Calling/Recap/S1/E04 Past Tense

Tru Calling Season 1, Episode 4: Past Tense
Synopsis: Tru has to stop a multiple-homicide.

Analysis of the episode is below the recap. Recap by Korval.

Recap
We open with a party, already in progress. Various background conversation lets us know that everyone is supposed to be college age (all appearances to the contrary).

A group of guys, a rather eclectic bunch, are gathered around a table. Apparently, waiting for Blake. After a few seconds, he shows up: tall, muscular, bald black guy. who is apparently always late.

After some idle chitchat, the 6 guys all have a toast to their impending graduation, and do their apparently unending friendship. "To the best night of our lives," one of them says, and they drink.

The camera, outside the window, pans up to a second-story window where there is a broken glass table and a bleeding woman. Apparently dead. DUN DUN DUNNNN!!!-style music plays and...

Cut to Tru and Harrison sitting outside, talking. Harrison tries to go into idle-chatter mode, but Tru wants to talk about her gift. Harrison actually plays it off as her "strange belief" that she goes back to save people's lives. What?

Didn't Tru go through this last episode? Where she tossed out all kinds of evidence for this? Where she predicted exactly what would happen, and he experienced it? What happened to the end of that episode, when he basically accepted it as real?

You can basically forget that episode. For reasons known only to the writers, they decided that it never happened. Or, at least, that part of it. Her confession obviously happened (since she never told him before), but his believing it? Didn't happen. And I'm sorry to say that this "Harrison doesn't believe her" arc will continue for a good 6-8 episodes. And it will only get more ridiculous as time passes and Tru does even more improbable things right in front of him.

Anyway, Harrison justifies her "strange belief" with a Call Back to the very first scene of the show: where Tru expressed her desire to save their mother. Tru says that it isn't about that, but Harrison (and his "semester of Psych back in High School) doesn't buy it. He tells her to leave the past alone, but she says that the past doesn't leave her alone.

Cut to Title Sequence.

We pick up with Lindsay waking Tru up, telling her that hiding the spare key under the doormat isn't particularly wise. She apparently brought Tru something to eat as part of her wakeup-service. Lindsay starts in on Tru's love life, telling her that she read that one out of every 7 guys is a keeper. Tru, pessimist that she is, thinks that it's a much higher number.

Then Lindsay asks a very odd question, whether Tru has something she wants to say to her, with a very expecting smile on her face. Tru thanks Lindsay for the food. As Tru heads off to the shower, Lindsay's expecting smile fades. This plays out exactly like one of those "forgotten anniversary" scenes, which has no doubt fueled innumerable Tru/Lindsay shipping FanFics.

Cut to Tru at work. She opens up her sandwich and sniffs it, only to find it not particularly appealing. Then, she hears a voice.

She heads into standards, and the entirely-not-spooky "Tru's about to go back in time" music starts playing. There's a body on the table. As Tru approaches it...

A hand reaches out and grabs her, and she screams. It's Gardez, playing a joke on her. Apparently, he thinks Tru takes things too seriously and decided to lighten the mood. Davis runs in to see what the problem is, and after a few moments, Gardez gets a call and heads out.

Tru asks Davis about what Gardez said about her being too serious. Davis then replys with "Gardez sees dead bodies; you see the people they used to be."

Cut to Meredith at work at night. Some guy comes in to tell her that they're doing random drug testing, and that she's one of the "random." A few quick flashbacks remind us that she's been using. Oooh, busted!

Cut to Tru and Harrison at a diner. Harrison asks if they did this yesterday. Yeah, he's kinda ambivalent on the whole "I believe Tru" thing. She reminds him that she doesn't go back every day, or even most days. Harrison then suggests that today would have been a good day to do over.

Apparently, Meredith no only already failed her drug test and was fired, but she also called Harrison and not Tru. Um, OK? Tru tells him that she doesn't control it, so they'll just have to deal with the actual problem. Yeah, that'll happen.

Cut to Tru and Davis having a conversation so banal that animated corpses and time travel must be imminent. 5 dead males, all from the same place. And their wallets were gone. 4 were drunk, but not drunk enough to be fatal. The other guy had a trace of something called "Avlocardyl" in his body. As Tru goes leaving through their belongings, she finds a card for a strip joint. And I'm sure absolutely none of this will be important at all.

Cut to Tru entering data into the computer. She looks down at a calendar and sees a notation: Lindsay's birthday. D'oh! Well, at least we know Lindsay and Tru aren't dating.

Enter random guy we've never seen before, looking for Gardez. He had an interview for a crime-scene photographer position. She asks how it went, and he tells her that it was only after he left the interview that he realized he had something stuck in his teeth. I know it looks kinda stupid, but do interviewers really send candidates packing over such trivialities?

Anyway, Gardez was the one who got him an interview, so he wanted to thank him. She asks his name "for the message." It's Luc. And since he has a name (and is kinda hot), we'll be seeing more of him.

Davis walks in, and they all talk a bit. Tru tries to get him to stay when she hears a voice. As in all other cases when this happens in front of other people, she makes no effort to hide the fact that she's hearing something. So she awkwardly extracts herself from the conversation/hitting on session. Davis covers for her, saying that she does that a lot.

So, again with the not-spooky music as Tru walks into standards with 5 bodies. They all jump up and ask for her help. Rewind/Cut to...

Tru in bed, being awoken by Lindsay. For some reason, Tru recites the list of food Lindsay brought, and Lindsay asks how she knew all that. Tru avoids answering her question by telling her that she remembered it was Lindsay's birthday. And Lindsay swallows it whole. Man, she can be distracted by anything. Apparently, nobody else remembered it was Lindsay's birthday, so she's kinda bummed about it.

Cut to Tru and Harrison. Tru's trying to enlist Harrison's help in solving a pentuple murder, but Harrison is rather reluctant. Then Tru informs him that she needs him to help get info at a strip club, which is all Harrison needs.

Cut to inside the club. Tru tries to pump the bartender for information, but he doesn't give out info on their employees. However, he apparently mistakes her for a stripper looking for an audition, which annoys Tru to no end. So Tru heads back to Harrison, who is busy enjoying the show.

Harrison is apparently much better at this whole "canvasing for info" thing, as he already knows the stripper-in-question's real name (Tara) and where she works her day-job. She thanks him and heads out. Harrison starts to go join her, but then decides to enjoy the show a bit more.

Cut to Tru at Tara's cubicle. Tru is slightly less than her usual blunt self, saying that she is putting together a party and was interested in her being the entertainment. At first, Tara is confused, but then she realizes what Tru's getting after, and takes Tru aside. Shocking though it may be for Tru to accept, but this is something of a sensitive matter for Tara, as nobody at her office knows about her stripping and she'd like to keep it that way. Nice job, Tru.

Anyway, Tara's booked for the night for a bachelor party at a particular hotel. Tru asks about who hired her, but it was handled through a service. And Tara bids her good day.

Cut to Tru at the hotel Tara mentioned. Tru asks the bellhop about the party, and he tells her when and where it is, but then says that the entertainment usually arrives later. Again, Tru is annoyed that she's been mistaken for a stripper, and the bellhop points out, "It's a bachelor party; who else would you be?"

So Tru accepts this, and asks what she can expect as far as patronage. The bellhop says that it'll just be the guests, as they declined a bartender. She inquires after the groom's name (John), saying that she wants to ask him if he wants her to be "naughty or nice." Apparently, this works on the bellhop, as...

Cut to Tru in John's office. One of the guys from the opening scene! DUN DUN DUNNNN!!!

Apparently, Tru is trying to get him to call off the party. John thinks that it's from his fiancee, who is apparently opposed to the idea of a bachelor party. She says that she's with the hotel, and they're overbooked. He groans about it, saying that it's been too long since his friends have gotten together, and then decides to call the hotel manager. Oops.

Tru jumps up and tells him that they can work something out. Not that way. After a lingering shot on his face, we have a very odd cut to...

Tru and Davis. Tru apparently asked him about "Avlocardyl," the mystery drug found in one of the people's system. Davis asks why she's interesting in something that esoteric, and she says she's studying for the M-CATs. To which he says that something that esoteric won't be on the M-CATs. She gives the lamest possible excuse, "I like to be really prepared," which is apparently enough for Davis, as he starts to Info Dump. Avlocardyl is a water-soluble toxin. DUN DUN DUNNNNN!!!!

Cut to Tru on the phone to Harrison (still at the club). She exposits her findings and plans. She thinks the alcohol was poisoned, so she has to replace it with stuff she knows is good. She asks him to find Robyn, John's bride to be. He's not interested in leaving the club to track down a woman who's about to be married. She then guilt-trips him into going, talking about all of the times she bailed him out of situations. Oh, like that time last episode that everyone seems to have forgotten about? Harrison points out that using a guilt-trip is more Meredith's style, which reminds Tru of something she totally forgot. So, cut to...

Tru at Meredith's office. Tru acts like it's just a social visit at first, then she asks obliquely about her drug problem. Meredith immediately becomes hostile, saying that her last "slip-up" was over a month ago. Tru then asks about the possibility of a random drug test, to which Meredith says she'd pass. On that note, Tru leaves.

Cut to Tru at the hotel again, carrying a large box. She's on the phone with Lindsay's sister, asking where Lindsay is, and also pointedly reminding reminding the sister that it's Lindsay's birthday.

Tru see's a maid with a trolley in the hall, then while the maid is in a room, swipes the key and enters the suite. Nobody's there, so she opens up her box and starts replacing the alcohol. While she's doing that, in come some of the guests. D'oh!

John asks why she's there, and she, after a moment's hesitation, says she's the bartender. He then points out that he didn't ask for one. She counters this by saying that it's the hotel's way to make up for the screwup with the room earlier. Good save.

So, those who are already there toast once again to "the best night of our lives." In comes the aforementioned Blake, who again is late. One of the guys says that the best man should never be late, but he retorts with, "I never said I was the best man. Just better than the rest of you idiots."

Tru slips out to call Harrison. She's come to the realization that Blake's entry makes it six people, not five. Which means that there were 5 victims and one likely killer. And the bodies at the morgue were covered with sheets, so she never saw their faces.

Cut to later in the party, as Tru dispenses drinks while they're playing cards. Blake comments on the less-than-terrific quality of the drinks, which she blows off. As she walks away from two of them having a conversation, she catches something mysterious, something about the last time they were together. The other guy isn't interested in talking about that time. DUN DUN DUNNN!!!!

Tru gets a napkin and starts taking a tally of everyone to keep things straight. While she's writing this down, Blake suddenly appears behind her. He's interested in getting some of the poisoned drinks she's hidden (obviously not trusting to her bar tending skills), but she suggests a scotch from her stock instead.

He then decides that he wants to thank the manager for gifting her to them (were her drinks that bad?), and asks for the manager's number. D'oh! She points out that he's gone home by now, but she says she'll make sure the manager finds him.

Blake probably had plans of continuing that conversation, but someone's started a movie of one of their prior get-togethers, which distracts him. After a while, the camera pans to a passing flock of girls, focusing on one girl in particular. Suddenly, everyone starts getting shifty and nervous, which Tru notices.

This moment is interrupted by the arrival of Tara, looking much hotter than she did at her telemarketing job. She appropriates one of the rooms to get "more comfortable" and suggests that they do the same.

Cut to Tara stripping for them. Well, most of them. One of the guys is leaning on the bar, looking rather uncomfortable. Tru offers him a drink, which he declines in favor of club soda made to look like a drink. He's apparently a recovering alcoholic, but he doesn't want his friends to know. Well, looks like she found one of the victims, the one with no alcohol in his system, so she crosses his name off the list. Of course, she fails to get the full meaning of that yet.

She calls Davis, asking if carbonation would speed up the effects of the poison, which Davis says it won't. Davis asks if she's at a party due to the music in the background over the phone. Suddenly, at the morgue, in walks Luc, who's lost on the way to his interview. As Davis gives him directions, Tru realizes what's happening, and tells Davis to tell Luc that he has something in his teeth. Stupid interviewer crisis averted.

Then she asks about how alcohol reacts with the poison. Apparently rather usefully, as it acts as a masking agent, making it undetectable.

Tru hangs up and looks back at Tara's show. She finds that one of the guys is married, which lets Tru scratch another possible suspect off her list, as she found a wedding ring among the victems.

The guy not drinking still looks rather depressed and heads to the balcony. Tru follows him and talks with him. She wonders what has him down, since she says they haven't seen each other since college. He says that college is supposed to be the best years of your life, but it doesn't always happen that way. He mopes about some vague "things" he wishes he could go back and change. Hey, Tru knows all about that.

He's almost talking to himself at this point, talking about how his friends can deal with what happened in college and how they didn't know her name. Tru tries to get more information from him, but Blake interrupts them, saying that he's bought the guy a lap dance. Then he gruffly tells Tru to get back to bar tending.

Cut to Meredith. Again, a random guy comes into her office and tells her about a random drug test. She is... not so much concerned by this as seemingly shocked that it actually happened.

Cut back to the party. Tru is talking to... someone on the phone. Something about frosting on a cake (we'll find out later), when the married guy comes over and asks after Blake. This gets Tru wondering where Blake is, which has her leave the hotel room for a moment to look for him.

He materializes behind her, saying that she's busted and he's going to have her thrown out. Before he can do that however, a yell from Tara is heard, and both Blake and Tru investigate.

Apparently, one of the guys was getting grabby, and she's rather upset about it. She goes to her room to cool off, and Tru follows her. Tara's doing something suspicious, and Tru asks her not to do whatever it is (apparently thinking that Tara's the killer). When Tara turns around, Tru finds that Tara has swiped their wallets.

Tara says that she had never done this before. Yeah, right. Tru declines to call the police, and then Tara takes a drink of tequila. Tru didn't bring tequila, and Tara says she found it behind the bar. In the stash that Tru hid due to poisoning. Tara says she's been drinking it since she got there.

Tru quickly realizes that Tara didn't die yesterday, so the alcohol must have been safe. So if it wasn't the alcohol, it must have been... The camera frames a shot of the bottles on the bar, then pans over to... the ice. DUN DUN DUNNNN!!!!

Tru, outside the room, calls Davis, who is kinda irritated by all of the calls. She asks about an antidote, which is glucogon. They have some at the morgue for treating diabetic emergencies. But before she can do anything, Blake finally comes through on his threat and shows up with hotel security.

Tru immediately goes back to crazy-ville, saying that "something is gonna happen." Not unsurprisingly, they throw her out.

And now we get a quick shot of the Running Tru, as she races to the morgue to get the antidote. Davis catches her taking the medicine. Rather than busting her, or even asking what's going on, he simply cuts off whatever excuse she's going to give him. He then says that he hopes one day she knows that she can be honest with him. And he lets her go, which she does. Missing meeting with Luc on the way.

Cut to Tru knocking on the door of the hotel. Blake answers and is rather upset to be seeing her again. She says that she knows something happened in college and she accuses him of trying to cover it up. She asks about the girl, what happened to her, and she tells him that they can't run from the past forever. He's rather incensed, saying that he knows that, then he asks who told her about it.

As she's about to continue, she notices his drink. It has ice in it. D'oh! She then realizes that, despite being the best man, he's from out of town; he didn't plan the bachelor party.

Harrison interrupts the conversation with a phone call. He found Robyn, and she's not getting married. DUN DUN DUNNNNN!!!!!

They apparently broke up three months ago, which she quickly tells Blake. He asks why they're having the party if there's no wedding, and Tru points out that they share a secret, one that John doesn't want revealed because he must have been the one who did whatever was done.

Blake accepts all of this surprisingly readily, despite her not providing any real evidence for it, and he realizes that something is going on. And Tru asks him to let her help them.

Cut to them walking back in, interrupting a poker game. John is not happy to have her back, but Blake says she has a story to tell. Tru tells them about the not-bachelor party that's happening. John tries to get the others back on his side, but they're not too pleased with being invited to a party under false pretenses. So John heads into one of the rooms to pack his stuff.

Tru follows him. He says that he didn't want to admit to his friends that his relationship failed, which is why he didn't tell them. Naturally, Tru doesn't buy it. Then she brings up the ice. He claims ignorance, but then Tru tells him that one of the guys wasn't drinking, so the police will figure out what happened.

Then she tells him a "bar tending trick" she picked up. According to Tru, for drinks ordered without ice, she put a little crushed ice in the bottom of the class, so the cold water will mix with the drink and keep it cool. He buys this (I don't know if it's true, but it seems unlikely. Even if it is a valid bar tending trick, she's not a bartender) and reacts horribly to the news that he poisoned himself. She then tells him that she left the antidote with Blake and the rest of the guys.

Apparently, while Tru and John were talking, Blake and the guys were listening in. They're right outside the door, and they're rather upset. What with the being poisoned and all.

Cut to Blake being taken into custody, and the police getting statements from everyone. Tru asks why it took him 5 years to try to kill everyone. Blake says that he sent John a letter a few weeks ago, saying that he was going to the police. Apparently, John got a freshman girl alone in a room, got "grabby", she tried to leave, and he threw her into a glass table.

Blake then confesses that John had something of a pattern of abuse to women, one that the guys didn't believe until this freshman was killed. But they still agreed not to say anything. Blake didn't even sign the letter he sent John, which is why John had to kill everyone at the party.

Cut to Lindsay walking into her darkened apartment, looking lonely and depressed, what with everyone having forgotten her birthday and all. When she turns on the lights, a bunch of people jump out and yell "Surprise!"

Apparently, those odd-ball calls Tru was making over the course of the episode was Tru orchestrating this surprise party. She's there with the cake and everything.

Fade cut to the morgue. Tru's doing something on the computer, and she hears a voice. Remembering what happened last time, she pulls the sheet off of Gardez, completely unsurprised. He's not particularly happy about this, his joke having failed.

Meredith calls, being the cranky bitch that she normally is. She's kinda upset that Tru didn't actually fork over whatever information she had about a random drug test, so she called to "not say thank you" to Tru. She also says she passed the test, and tells Tru to let her past say past. Tru says she was just trying to help, and then she realized that she did help (since Meredith failed yesterday). Meredith hangs up, having lost the argument but not admitting defeat.

In Meredith's office, some other random guy comes in, and Meredith asks him to close the door. She hands him $100 and thanks him for the "sample". He wonders how she knew about the test, and she says she "just had a feeling."

Cut to Tru and Harrison walking down the street, discussing the case. She's lamenting the fact that the five victims she saved may go to prison. Yeah, somehow, I'm guessing they aren't complaining, "we have to go to jail, but at least we're not dead" thing. They talk for a bit, and Tru brings up Lindsay's theory that 1 in 7 guys are good; the six guys at the party clearly were bad, so she wonders if that makes Harrison #7. Squick! Fortunately, he says he's probably not, but she tells her that he's out there.

What a coincidence, Luc walks by. She sees him, but because he never met her, he doesn't notice her.

Analysis
OK, so. The Pilot was a failure as a pilot, but a pretty decent episode overall. The next two episodes were able to keep interest due to being character pieces. Episode 2 was about Tru's breakup, but it also had a great twist ending: the guy dies anyway. Episode 3 was a great episode overall, well written, and very well acted by everyone (except maybe Lindsay's actress). Episode 4 is the beginning of what ultimately sank Tru Calling as a show: dull writing.

This episode is OK. There's nothing particularly offensive. There's a bit of Fridge Logic about how Tru should have known the drug wasn't in the alcohol once the guy asks for non-alcoholic drinks, but we can let that slide. The problem is that it's a straight murder mystery.

A murder mystery story can certainly work. But the writers didn't pull it off. It functions as a story, but there is no real sense of danger or time running out. And this is probably due to the fact that, as far as Tru and everyone else thought, Tru solved the real problem when she switched the alcohol. It isn't until about 10 minutes until the end that we find that it was really in the ice, and by then nobody cares anymore.

The last two episodes had something in common: a personal element. The firefighter wasn't just a random guy; he was someone Tru was hot for. And Harrison was intimately involved (in more ways than one) in the murder plot of the last episode. This one is about 6 guys we don't know, nobody in the main cast knows, and we aren't going to meet again.

That's OK for a mystery series; Murder She Wrote was able to do this quite well, as have many others. The problem is that there are six characters who don't even get introduced until 15 minutes into the episode. Take 5 minutes off of the back end for epilogue and such, and that leaves about 20 minutes total to develop these characters. That's very little time to develop six characters.

In many ways, this show is a victim of something that probably ought to be a trope: Sci-Finding Yourself Syndrome. So many Sci-Fi shows don't really know what they're about for the first few episodes. It's easy to know what works in a regular dramatic series, but once you start to bring the fantastical in, it becomes more difficult to gauge whether something will work or not. It took Star Trek the Next Generation a whole season of crap before it even began to find its voice. Tru Calling will do better, and it'll get more quality episodes as the writers really figure out what works and what doesn't.

But there's also the Negative Continuity with regard to Harrison not believing Tru. And unfortunately, you're going to see this continue for far too many episodes before he eventually buys it. It's really just a drag on the series at this point, and it actively detracts from Episode 3.

I will say this. The Meredith arc, all 5 minutes of it, really makes me hate the fact that they're going to get rid of her mid-season. It was short, but I really liked how it ended. How Meredith called Tru to "not thank her" for the "not warning" Tru gave her. And how they both know that Tru helped her, but Meredith won't admit it (and Meredith doesn't truly know Tru knew that she would fail). I really wish they could have incorporated Meredith more in the show.

It was certainly a lot more interesting than the Lindsay arc. Fortunately, that bit didn't eat up much air time. I wouldn't go so far as to call Lindsay a Creators Pet, but she's just such a boring character.

Oh, and BTW, when Tru goes after Tara when the guy tried to grab her, Tru basically is about to accuse her of putting the poison in their drinks. That seems like a rather large conclusion to jump to, but there's a reason for it. There was a cut scene, when Tara was getting ready for her act and Tru brought her a drink. It was maybe 2 minutes long, but the selling point of the scene was that Tara would be willing to do "whatever it takes" to keep people from going too far with her. Which is where Tru's suspicion comes from.