The Pretender/YMMV

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


These things about The Pretender are subjective - not everyone will agree with all of them.

  • Angst? What Angst?: In "Toy Surprise", we find that Mr. Parker never seemed perturbed by his wife's death. Sydney even recalled Mr. Parker told him "Life goes on" and resumed life as if nothing happened - immediately after the funeral, thus suggesting this trope. A DSA that Angelo had obtained even shows that exact conversation, but after Sydney leaves, we see Mr. Parker sit down and openly weep over Catherine.
  • Better on DVD: Loose ends or not, the DVDs make it a lot easier to try to keep track of what's going on instead of getting one episode at a time.
  • The Chris Carter Effect: The series never really did answer its most important questions, but it really started to show in Season 4.
  • Complete Monster: Mr. Raines. Just look at what he did to Timmy/Angelo for just one example.
  • Cry for the Devil: It was only one episode, but there was an episode when Jarod stopped a child murderer in the past and his copycat in modern times. Jarod finally finds the body of the dead girls and a bracelet one wore. The next scene we see is Big Bad Mr. Raines clutching the necklace and crying.
  • It Was His Sled: Jarod having both a brother and sister.
  • Jerkass Woobie: Miss Parker.
  • Magnificent Bastard: Mr. Parker.
  • Moral Event Horizon: Mr. Lyle killing Kyle.
  • Retroactive Recognition:
    • Sydney is Lodz.
    • Kyle is Michael Westen.
    • Mr. Lyle is Mike Decker.
    • Jake Lloyd appeared in about half a dozen episodes (in flashbacks, as young Angelo) before being cast as Anakin Skywalker in The Phantom Menace.
    • "Homefront" had a rather nasty father who has been a rather nasty person in a number of other things (including the vampire businessman who gets defenestrated in the first episode of Angel), and his ex-wife is Jan.
    • Jarod's clone is Kevin Fischer and Ian Thomas.
    • In the episode "Scott Free", Scott's son is Drake before he met Josh.
    • The Centre contractor in the episode "Over the Edge" went on to become Holland Manners.
    • The Vietnamese immigrant in "Collateral Damage" is Jin Kwon.
    • The property developer in "Gigolo Jarod" is Elisa Maza and Allison Blake.
    • The young man Jarod helps in "Toy Surprise" is Francis from Malcolm in the Middle.
    • One of Jarod's students in "School Daze" is young Jack and Luke Girardi.
    • The two-parter "Bloodlines" stars Haley Joel Osment, in a Not-So-Small Role. Jarod must identify which one of three children is a genius. Since two of the children are unknown child actors and the last one was the lead in The Sixth Sense the year after appearing on this show, it's not hard for a post-1999 audience to guess which one it is.
    • A behind-the-scenes example: Javier Grillo-Marxuach was a member of the writing team for the first season.
    • Janitor Kenny, whose murder may have been a catalyst for Jarod's escape, is Dr. Phlox.
    • Mr. White is played by Jigsaw.
    • Lounge singer Billie in "Pool" is Sydney Bristow/Elektra Natchios.
  • Seasonal Rot: Season 4. The Chris Carter Effect was in full force, old storylines were being recycled, and newer ones (like Mr. Parker on the run and the whole story behind Thomas' murder) meandered. Those kind of complaints certainly cropped up in the first three seasons, but individual episode quality also began to suffer.
  • Tear Jerker: The end of "Dragon House (Part 2)". Jarod's brother Kyle is presumed dead (though he is later shown to have survived), while he found his mother and sister - only to lose them again just as quickly.
    • "Red Rock Jarod", where Kyle dies for real in Jarod's arms.
  • Toy Ship: Young Jarod and Miss Parker.

Jarod: I still remember the little girl who gave me my first kiss.

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