Tru Calling/Recap/S1/E06 Star Crossed
Tru Calling Season 1, Episode 6: Star-Crossed
Synopsis: Tru must keep two people from falling off of a cliff.
Analysis of the episode is below the recap. Recap by Korval.
Recap
We begin almost exactly where the last episode ended: with Davis revealing he knows about Tru's powers. Except that apparently Tru tried to just ignore Davis when he told her to have a seat so they could talk. Instead, she walked out.
So Davis is now trying to get Tru to talk to him. Eventually, he gets her to tell her about how her powers work. Dead people ask for her help, time rewinds, and she gets to stop them. She asks why that doesn't seem to concern him, to which he replies that he's seen a lot of strange things in the morgue. Um, yeah.
Then, Tru basically goes over the details of how burdensome the whole thing is. How she has to lie to people, how she can't have normal relationships, and so on. Davis tells her it's a gift, to which she replies, "Candles are gifts." Then Davis asks her how it feels to know that someone out there is about to die and is going to ask for her help. The camera zooms in on Tru's face, and...
Cut to random house. A woman is hurriedly packing things into a bag. The phone rings and she picks it up, with trepidation in her voice. We only hear her side of the call; she says that she's ready. And she says that she loves the person too.
Cue title sequence.
So, Tru's in bed, as usual. The TV's on some old black and white movie. The couple on the TV share a romantic kiss, with the music rising in the background.
Cut to Tru and Lindsay, doing their nails. Lindsay points out how the whole kissing with the musing swelling thing never happens in real life. Tru says that she's not looking for that, just good conversation and company. And some kind of crease above his lip when he smiles; I don't know what that's all about.
Apparently, this is a description of Luc, who she then starts to tell Lindsay about. Tru then points out how her working hours will keep them apart, but Lindsay points out that she's planning the breakup before the first date. Lindsay says that she should focus on what she wants.
Lindsay then steers the conversation back to her favorite topic: herself. She says that what she wants is to get out of her cubicle at the office, so she has a business meeting planned with her boss, Gregory, over drinks. Tru points out that this is not exactly helpful to her situation. Lindsay then suggests that if Tru is so enamored over movie-style romantic moments, then she shouldn't go after him. Wow, a reasonable suggesting from Lindsay; who'd have thought?
Cut to Lindsay's business meeting. She shows the guy her portfolio, which he compliments. He says that it's the kind of thing that can move you forward. Then he starts in on a philosophy about knowing what you want and going for it, which Lindsay tells him that she was just talking to Tru about that sort of thing earlier.
At which point, she notices his hand on her thigh. She is not amused.
Cut to the morgue. Gardez is apparently having Tru clean out the truck after he made a pickup. Luc walks in. Tru asks him what he's doing there, to which he points out that he works there. Good job, Tru.
Luc then asks Tru out, though he's rather circumspect about it. Tru accepts, but apparently has a problem with going out tomorrow. She says she doesn't know how her days will end up, so she would prefer it to be today. Of course, she's at work right now so...
Gardez then walks in and tells Tru to just go out now. He'll cover for her. Well, that was nice of him.
Cut to Tru and Luc on their date. They're at a restaurant, but they appear to be seated very near the kitchen, as they have to speak over a constant clatter of plates. Tru asks what has to be one of the lamest questions on the planet, "Did you grow up wanting to take pictures of dead people?"
I mean really, Tru. Do you want him to say yes? Wouldn't that be mighty creepy for someone to say, "Why yes; every since I was a little boy, I've always enjoyed the look of human human corpses." What is wrong with you, Tru?
He instead says that he grew up wanting to take pictures, but the dead people part came later. Tru's reply is garbled by the background noise of plates clattering. Luc asks how she's still single. Which, to be fair, is also a mighty stupid question to ask.
She replies that Lindsay said that if the wrong person's in the room, Tru will find them. Tru quickly realizes the implications of this and back peddles, but Tru's cell phone cuts her off. Hey Tru, when you're on a big, important date, maybe you should turn the thing off.
Anyway, it's Lindsay, calling to talk about her business meeting. Tru asks what happened. And Luc must be the most patient man on the planet, since he's just sitting there. Apparently, after her boss's groping, she told him no, and he made her a receptionist. Man, this episode is thick with stupidity and we're only 7 minutes in. I mean, that's textbook sexual harassment. Anyway, Tru says that they'll "fix it," though she doesn't say how (the word "lawsuit" comes to mind), and Tru finally hangs up.
So, back to Luc. As Tru's phone starts ringing again, a passing waiter knocks Luc's water into his lap. While he's cleaning himself up, Tru answers the phone. It's Davis this time. He says that Gardez has a pickup for two bodies, and he wants Tru to go help. She says that she didn't know that was part of the job description. Davis's response: "Surprise."
Cut to Tru and Gardez. He asks about the date, and Tru tells him that things didn't go well. The bodies in question are next to a (thankfully unexploded) car that fell off of a cliff. Gardez says that he's surprised it's taken this long for a car to go over this cliff; the guard rail was apparently coming undone.
The bodies are a man we haven't seen before and the woman from the intro. Gardez suggests that they were in love, due to the presence of a necklace around the woman's neck. The guy is Adam and the girl is Jen. Gardez points out a tatoo on Adam's arm that means "ambition". Gardez heads back to the car to get something to help them carry the bodies. Tru kneels down over the pair and whispers, "You were in love, weren't you?"
Adam's eyes pop open and he reaches out for Tru; she leaps back at this. Adam says "Help us!" We then travel back in time to...
Tru in bed with the romantic movie playing. We then immediately cut to..
Tru in the morgue. No, it's thankfully not what you think; she's not here to verify for the fifth time what has happened. She just needs the computer. Davis is here and Tru has apparently told him what happened.
While she's looking something up, he asks if he was wearing that shirt before. She replies with, "Unfortunately, yes." Davis gets a rather upset look on his face, but lets the comment pass.
Tru apparently remembered the license plate number from the car, and is trying to find its owner. She discovers that the car belonged to Adam, so she starts to head to his high school.
On her way out, she runs into Luc. He again goes through his awkward, round-about method of asking her out on a date. She then remembers the unpleasantness of their original date, and says she'll get back to him. With that, she runs off.
Tru goes to see Harrison in their diner. She just runs up to him and asks him for his keys. He tells her to take care of "her" (the car); she says that she knows that he won "her" in the best poker game of his life. He then asks if this is one of her "crazy days". She ignores the question and demands the keys again. He says that he just wants "her" back; Tru says that there won't be a scratch on it. He then replies, with a wink, "Not the car; my sister." Awwwww.
Tru's phone goes off. It's Lindsay, expecting Tru for the whole doing your nails thing. Harrison then mutters, feigning a CB operator, "Incoming call from planet Bitch, come back." Tru tells Lindsay that Harrison says hello. To which Lindsay replies that it's visiting day at the penitentiary. Tru translates this to Harrison as "big hugs". OK, they don't like each other. We get it.
It's right about now that astute readers may realize that Harrison and Lindsay don't really interact. They live in two completely different circles who's only contact is that fact that they both know Tru. Maybe they don't like each other because Tru uses the two of them as bitching-boards against each other. "Harrison, you would not believe what Lindsay did;" "Linds, you won't believe what my brother did;" and so on. Who knows.
Moving on, Lindsay says that they can't meet later, because she has a dinner meeting with her boss, Gregory. Yeah, that went well last time. Tru suggests that she calls it off, but Lindsay isn't having any of it. So Tru recruits Harrison for... something. Oh God.
Cut to Tru in Harrison's car at a high-school. She checks herself in the mirror and says to herself, "So I'm a mature seventeen." Eliza, I'm not sure I buy that you're fresh out of college; a teenager isn't even in the ballpark.
So she gets out and starts putting on her act. She draws a few stares from students as she looks around aimlessly. Eventually, she asks a student if she can find Adam, and the student points him out, in the midst of a crowd.
So Adam and his cohorts are talking about Adam's love life. Apparently, he's not in love with his girlfriend because she's the "hottest girl in school." He doesn't get to say why though. Tru interrupts him, noting and translating his tattoo of "ambition." She compliments the tattoo work and they introduce themselves.
He asks why she's there, and she says that her family's moving into the area and she's taking a look around to see if she wants to go there. That's way better than last episodes easily-cracked lie. Before she can even finish her lie, a random blond interrupts her, telling her not to come to the school. Apparently, the blond is the aforementioned "hottest girl in school;" Adam's girlfriend Amy.
Hey wait: the girl at the crash was a brunette, and her name was Jen. DUN DUN... dun?
Anyway, Tru goes with them to the cafeteria. Apparently, they don't have any security at this school. In the lunch line, Adam asks where she's from. Deciding not to stretch the lie any farther than she has to, she asks why it matters. Adam replies that it does matter, to some. Being a prep-school, things appear to be divided along money lines. The scholarship-owning students have to find work to help pay for their schooling, while the rich kinds don't. And that's the entire division. Amy doesn't seem to think much of this, saying that "it's always fun to grow up in the middle of a cliche." Hang on to your hat, lady, because you're gonna be seeing a lot more cliches over the course of this episode.
Adam offers to cover the cost of Tru's food. As he does, Tru recognizes the woman working the register: Jen, from the accident! Tru asks Adam if he knows her, but Adam says that she's "on scholarship. Oil and water." Dun... oh, screw it.
Cut to Tru talking to Davis over the phone. She calls it a case of "Romeo and Juliet." Yeah, we got that from the episode title, thank you. Tru's theory is that the two of them are dating on the sly, in spite of him having a "public girlfriend".
Davis then says that they're kind of like a team. Tru asks about this, and Davis says that they're like the Wonder Twins. Except that they're not twins. And he doesn't have powers. No, he actually says that. Anyway, she heads off to find "Juliet," aka Jen.
Tru asks Jen for help, saying that she's lost. Jen replies with "Who isn't?" Wow, what a jackass; Tru's well within her rights to leave your sorry ass to die. The actual Tru tries to power through that wall of jerky, asking whether she likes the place. Jen tells her that it's high school. Jackass and dumbass, sitting in a tree...
Tru's stupidity apparently leads Jen to open up a bit, saying that she saw Tru in line. And they introduce themselves. Tru segues the conversation to Adam, saying that he has a way with the ladies. Jen says that she wouldn't know; he's not her type. She looks down the street at something we can't see and says that Adam's not her brother's type either.
Just then, a rather loud car pulls up, driven by, apparently, her brother. Tru asks if her brother hates Adam, and Jen tells him that he hates everybody. Oh, it's a whole family of jackasses. And then Jen gets in the car and drives off.
Jen's brother almost runs over Adam, who was too busy jaywalking to notice either the street or the on-coming car. When Jen's brother stops the car, he and Adam lock eyes, and a look of... well, I don't know what they were going for, but mild irritation might be pushing it. They look at each other, and Adam walks off.
Cut to Tru calling Gardez. She asks him to run a DMV check on Jen's brother, Derrick (how she got this name, I don't know). She gives him the cover story that he nicked her brother's car. That's apparently good enough for Gardez, and he gives her his address.
Cut to Tru at Derrick and Jen's place. Derrick is busy working on his car. When Tru approaches him, he recognizes her from sitting with Jen for those few seconds he saw her. She asks what he was doing with the car as a way to ingratiate herself with him. She then slowly pulls the conversation to Adam, asking him what the problem is between them.
Apparently, Adam's father fired Derrick's father last month. Adam's car was apparently purchased with the layoff savings. Derrick then let's Tru know that he and Adam are going to be racing in two hours. Along a cliff. Yeah.
Cut to Tru talking to Davis about the particulars. Obviously the race is how the crash happens, but she doesn't know how Jen gets into the car with Adam. Davis warns her not to jump to conclusions; Jen might not have been in the car with Adam at all. Tru thanks him for the help.
And cut to Lindsay and her boss, Gregory, getting to the restaurant. As they're being seated, oh look, it's Harrison. He greets Lindsay warming, hugging her and saying that it's great to see her. Lindsay is confused, not unsurprisingly. He then introduces himself to Gregory as "an old friend of Lindsay's". He then invites himself into their booth.
Cut to the 3 of them sitting and eating. Harrison is sitting between them, telling a story that ends in "So anyway, that's the most I ever puked." Gregory decides that now would be a good time to head to the bathroom. This gives Lindsay some time alone with Harrison to ask what he's doing. She's already figured out that he's trying to sabotage their outing.
Harrison says that he was ordered there to prevent her being demoted. He thinks. Fortunately, he doesn't mention Tru or her abilities. Regardless, Lindsay is not buying it. Harrison decides to "make up" a story about a friend that used to work for Gregory, who knows that he used after-hours drinks as a way to hook up with employees. Lindsay still ain't buying it.
Cut to a shot of road. No, really; a shot of road passing by. Pan up to reveal a number of cars and people milling about. Adam and his cohorts among them. Adam's girlfriend Amy isn't too keen on the whole race thing. Tru shows up and asks to talk to Adam.
Tru again saunters back to stupid-ville as she tries to warn him about some nebulous thing that's going to go wrong. She suggests that Derrick may try something, after which Adam tells her that he's got it covered. He then immediately turns toward Derrick and starts asking for the "insurance". Apparently, each driver will be riding with one of the other's group, to keep each other from doing something unfortunate to the other during the race.
Derrick picks one of Adam's random hangers on, and Adam picks... Jen! DUN DUN, oh who cares at this point?
Adam then heads back to his car, while giving his girlfriend a peck on the cheek. Amy is not amused by it. Tru makes one last appeal to Adam, but he doesn't care. Tru then says to Amy, "You're worried." And Amy wonders how else should she look when someone she loves is doing something stupid. Amy then runs off, saying that she can't watch. Good job, Tru.
And the race is on. Tru is standing at the cliff where things go badly, while the racers are driving along. Adam reaches down for his nitro as they approach the fated turn. Tru then steps out into the middle of the oncoming racers, which somehow causes him to hold a turn that she's expecting him not to. In any case, Adam wins and Derrick loses.
Adam is complaining to Tru about her jumping out in the middle of the road, saying that he wasn't going over the edge. Then he asks about Amy, wondering why she left like that. Tru rightly knocks some sense into him and leaves. She then calls someone on her cel and asks "What are you doing right now?"
Cut to Tru and... Luc? Again, at the restaurant. Only this time, they're earlier, so they're not stuck in the corner by the kitchen. Luc says that they should cut right past all of the work questions and such. Tru then remembers to turn off her phone, and tells him to start. They then go through a rapid series of questions and answers with each other.
Anyway, one of Tru's questions is about the worst gift he ever gave a girlfriend, and he responds with a $3.95 necklace he gave a girl once. This jogs Tru's memory: Jen was wearing an expensive necklace back when she was dead. But not when she was in the car with Adam. Of course, if Tru had been paying attention to the timing of the incident, she'd have known that it was way too early in the day for them to have gone over the edge.
Tru then tells him that she needs to leave, saying that there's somewhere she has to be. He asks if she has to go right now. Tru just says that there are times when she will do stuff like that. And after babbling for a bit about how she'll call him and how she wants to try it again some other time, she heads out.
Cut to Tru at the after-race party... in the middle of the street. OK. She asks one of Adam's cohorts about him, but he doesn't know where he went. He does know where Jen is when Tru asks, and points her in the right direction.
Cut to misty forest. Tru is looking around. And she finds Jen. Who's receiving the necklace from... Amy? And the two of them share a romantic kiss. So, Yeah.
Cue Adam, who was apparently looking for Amy. Oops.
He asks what she's doing, and Amy replies that she's sorry. Yeah, not an answer. He sputters that things weren't great between them, but he starts to ask how she could... something that Tru cuts him off. Yeah, I didn't want to here where that sentence might have ended or anything. Amy says that she wanted to tell him about it, but she didn't know how. And Adam replies that she found a way.
Then he walks off, followed by Tru. Jen apologizes to Amy, for people finding out. Amy then says that they had a plan for that eventuality: running away together. Jen is reluctant to leave, but Amy points out that people will look at them differently. They have to go... somewhere else. And Jen agrees. Amy says she'll pick her up in a half hour.
Cut to Tru talking to Davis. She now calls it a case of "Juliet and Juliet." Way to stretch an already stupid cliche beyond the breaking point so far that it loses all meaning and acts against any form of rational thought. Tru admits that she doesn't know what's going to happen, but then she sees Adam leaving and decdies to follow him. I would like to point out that this entire scene exists for the sole purpose of them using that powerfully lame "Juliet and Juliet" line, as Davis does not materially contribute to the conversation.
Cut back to Harrison, Lindsay, and Gregory. Harrison offers to get another round. While he's gone, Lindsay gets the opportunity to apologize and to start to show off her proposal. He suggests that they not waste their few minutes alone on work, and immediately starts getting "hands-on". Dude, really. There is no mood here. Do you think she's just going to go, "yes, your hand on my thigh instantly makes me want to jump your bone."
Lindsay is nonplussed about Harrison being right. And speaking of Harrison, he shows up, suggesting that Gregory has things to do in the morning and should get some sleep to be fresh for them. He agrees and leaves, but not before Lindsay gives him her portfolio, saying that they can discuss it at the office tomorrow. Lindsay thanks Harrison for his help.
Cut to a replay of Jen's original intro scene in the teaser. Only this time we get to see Amy's side of the conversation too. In comes Derrick, asking what she's doing. What with the packing and all. He asks who she was talking to, since he heard the "I love you" part of the conversation. Jen's reply is that it's none of his business. Yeah, that'll placate him.
He then accuses her of having a relationship with Adam. She denies it, picks up a bushel of roses (?) along with her suitcase and walks out.
She goes out front and finds... Adam waiting there. He asks her to get in the car, wanting to talk to her. He says he's looking for Amy. He also says that she owes him. Derrick sees this and is mightily pissed.
Tru pulls up, but is having some car trouble, so she can't follow them. She sees Derrick going for his car and starts to warn him about something that may happen with Adam and Jen. He invites her to come along.
Cut to Adam and Jen, driving along a wet road. Adam asks how long Amy and Jen's relationship was going on. When Jen says that it started a few months ago, Adam starts driving faster. Jen tries to calm him by saying that Amy wanted to tell him, but didn't know how. Apparently this works, as he stops. A few feet from the cliff.
While they talk, Derrick's car pulls up behind them. Right on their bumper. And he starts to push them forward, towards the guardrail at the edge of the cliff.
Tru tries to calm Derrick down. Meanwhile, Jen's door is apparently stuck. Derrick claims that he's just trying to scare his sister. He claims that he's just bumping them, that the guardrail will keep them from going over. Um Tru, now might be a good time to physical stop this. Grab the stick and shift into reverse, something.
Instead, Tru decides to tell Derrick that Jen's in love with Amy, not Adam. For some reason, this actually stops Derrick. Then Amy pulls up behind them. Amy and Jen get out of their respective vehicles (Jen through the window), and they embrace.
Cut to Tru and Davis in the morgue. Apparently, Amy and Jen aren't running away after all. Tru says that they still have to deal with life with their "little secret" exposed. Davis says that if it weren't for her, they wouldn't have to deal with life. To which Tru says "If it weren't for us." She says that being able to talk to someone helped her deal with the problem.
Also, Amy and Jen gave Tru the roses that Jen took from her house, in thanks for Tru's help. And she gives the roses to Davis, for his help. Davis takes them, looking much like a man who's never gotten roses before.
Cut to Tru and Harrison on cel phones. She wants to know how things went with Lindsay. He says that things went OK, but he seems distracted during the conversation. When she tells him that she's approaching her apartment, he suggests that this may not be the best idea. And she opens the door to find...
Lindsay and Harrison making out. Why are they doing this in Tru's apartment? Doesn't Lindsay have some place that she lives?
Cut to Tru and Luc talking. He's wondering about the whole running out of the date and then meeting up with him a few hours later. Tru calls back to Lindsays conversation about things not being like the movies, and how some things are better left as a mystery. Luc deftly counters with "What good is a mystery if you don't try to figure it out?" Naturally, they kiss and the music swells.
Analysis
Oh God that was awful. If I made this episode sound even slightly enjoyable, then I recapped it wrong.
I have good news though: you will never see an episode of Tru Calling this bad again. Ever. This is it; the nadir of the series. The absolute worst it gets. Oh, there will be a few bad ones between now and the end, but this one is the absolute worst episode ever.
It's too bad that this is the sixth episode. I never saw the series in chronological order, so I wasn't exposed to this as the sixth episode. But I can fully understand how someone sitting through the previous 2 episodes two weeks ago, then getting this one would just write the show off as missed potential.
The episode sets up stupid motifs and fulfills them in the most ham-fisted way possible. The non-main characters are boring and lifeless, and the plot just sort of walks from the beginning to the end.
Basically, the writing sucked. They tried to do way too much in this episode. The idea behind the episode was functional, and there was a really good motif to be explored: secrets. Tru sharing her secret with Davis, and Amy and Jen's secret being revealed. That could have been great if it had been properly explored. But it wasn't.
First, because we don't know about the secret until almost the end of the episode, we don't get the sense that this secret even exists, much less needs to be kept. Second, because of the show's format, we only really have 25 minutes or so to spend with these people, so that kind of complex interaction really doesn't work.
To really have some impact with this kind of reveal, we need to really see Adam and Amy's relationship. We were told that Adam is Amy's best friend, but we have no real evidence of that. It should matter to us in some way that Amy's been betraying Adam, but it doesn't. Because of the racing element, Adam's made out to be something of a bad guy, or at least too macho for his own good. We just don't care about any of these people.
And worst of all, the secret's reveal is totally 100% gutless. Here you have a man who's in love with a woman that he finds out is actually in love with another woman. And there's not one word, not a syllable of anti-homosexual commentary. Not one "fag," "dyke," "bulldiger," or any of a dozen other epithets that could have been hurled. Nobody is ever shunned by friends or family (that we see), and it all works out in the end.
Next, there's the lost potential. This was the episode where we were supposed to see how Davis knew about Tru's powers. Do we? No. We get a 3 minute blurb in the teaser, and then... very little. Tru basically accepts Davis's weak explanation about how he knows what she can do, and that's it: BFF for life. Or partners in life saving.
This should be one of the defining moments of the Tru/Davis relationship. And what is it? A footnote to an episode-wide motif.
However, the true crime that this episode permits is revealed in the next-to-last scene: the Harrison/Lindsay relationship. This couldn't have been started in a more ham-handed way. The very first interaction we see between Harrison and Lindsay is loathing. He saves her from sexual harassment, and suddenly she's hot for him? I'm sorry, but no.
Further, this isn't the last we'll see of this relationship. Oh no; that would be too kind if it were only one episode. No, we're going to see this damn thing drag itself out for most of the rest of the season. Not only that, most episodes involving it will make Tru seem more and more like she secretly wants to torture her best friend.