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Episode Recap: Winterland
A new episode of Journeyman provided us with the answers to some of the lingering questions we've had since Day 1. Not only did we see the return of Professor Langley, but even Livia opened up and started talking. It all began with a trip back to the 1970s.
In the past, Dan found himself at a key party with Livia. As he mingled with the party guests and Nixon's "I am not a crook" speech played on the television, a young girl showed up looking for her parents. Poor Abigail Armstrong walked into her parents' bedroom and found her mother having sex with a man who wasn't her father. Shocked and disgusted, she fled her home never to be seen again.
Back in the present, Dan finally showed up for his dinner with Katie. She's not fully supportive of her husband's journeys, and as she put it, things were finally starting to seem normal. The next day, Jack continued to discuss the Dylan McCleen cash with the feds while Dan researched Abigail's whereabouts in present day. It turns out she was last seen hitchhiking in 1973. While doing his research, an FBI agent showed up to interrogate Dan about the Dylan McCleen hijacking. It seemed his past finally caught up with him when the agent tried to show a connection between his interest in the McCleen hijacking and Dan's own disappearance from the 747 a few weeks back.
When Dan returned home from a rough day at the office, he immediately went to get rid of the McCleen cash when Dr. Langley called to have a meeting. Langley seemed to believe the feds may know more than they put on about Dan's situation and warned him not to reveal anything about his traveling. Dan disappears to the '70s as Langley turns to walk away. When he looks back and sees Dan is nowhere to be found, he doesn't look the least bit surprised.
He's back and finds himself on the beach along the highway; the same spot Abigail Armstrong was last seen hitchhiking before she vanished. Dan approaches Abby and prevents her from taking a ride with a stranger in a green pickup truck and instead sends her off in a VW bus with a group of hippies. In 2007 Dan comes home to find his brother waiting to discuss the stolen money, but Dan refused to hear him out and kicked him out of the house. The next morning, the feds show up to search Dan and Katie's home for evidence. In the mess they create, Katie starts rummaging though a box of stuff that belonged to Livia before she disappeared, including an old photograph.
Meanwhile, Dan once again finds himself in the 1970s, at a diner with Livia sitting at a table across from the group of hippies he sent Abby off with. Realizing his mission with Abby is still not finished, he tries to persuade her not to continue tagging along with the group. She refuses. In present day, Dan checks in on Abby and discovers his attempt to prevent her disappearance instead set her on a path that led her to a life sentence in prison.
Katie shows up to show Dan the photograph of Livia. At the police station, the federal agent discusses the evidence with Jack. He starts the wheels in motion for Jack to discover Dan's secret. The agent believes there's a link between the marked bills from the McCleen case and a $20 bill from the future that Jack turned in as evidence in a case from 1994 (when Dan paid a cab driver with a seemingly counterfeit bill and was chased down by his brother.)
In a final trip back to the '70s, Dan and Livia turn up in a liquor store where Abby and her friends are trying to pull off a robbery. As the two try to convince Abby to back out before it's too late, Dan confronts Livia about the picture Katie found. Here's the big reveal: Livia's actual life took place during the 1940s and her traveling all takes place in the future. Her relationship with Dan was never meant to be, but when they crossed paths, she had an extended stay in Dan's present until the day she vanished from the aircraft.
Before Livia could reveal anything else, they had to set things right for Abigail Armstrong. Dan uses the McCleen money in an attempt to stop the robbery. When that fails, he convinces her that following her boyfriend's orders made her no different from her mother's relationship to her father and she flees the scene just before her friends are gunned down. Dan returns to 2007 and learns that Abby went on to become a successful politician. He and Katie discuss Livia's revelation as Jack sits in a bar contemplating the odd circumstances surrounding his brother's case.
This was another great episode of Journeyman. We finally learned about Livia's journeys and it looks like Jack may soon begin to understand Dan's situation. As we learn more and more, I'm becoming convinced that Dr. Langley is no good. He seemed to have a pretty devilish look on his face when he realized Dan left on another trip. I'm also coming around to Katie. She was completely calm when the feds tore through her home and she's not nearly as concerned about Dan seeing Livia as I would expect her to be. Overall, with two great episodes in a row, this show is definitely on an upswing. With next week being Part 1 of a two-parter, I'm hoping this streak continues.
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Nov 13, 2007 8:55 AM
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Jack's remorse could be too little, too late. As my husband pointed out, he abused his position as a police officer; he stole money from Jack's house to track down where it came from, simply because he thinks there must be some nefarious problems that Dan and Kate aren't telling him.
What I don't get is that the amount of money that Dan had seemed to change; at times, it fits into his jacket pockets, and at others, it looks as though it fills a satchel. At least he doesn't have the money problem any more, although he also doesn't have old money to spend during his trips, either.
My jaw dropped to learn that Livia is coming forward from the past. It would explain why he never sees her in his "regular" life.
I disagree that the professor seems suspicious--I thought from the first that he knew that Dan wasn't writing a book, but was actually traveling in time. His warning to keep "the book" a secret was to protect Dan from unwanted probing about his time travel. I think the professor knows something about the hows and/or whys of time travel, but neither he nor the show are ready to reveal that yet.
I am really enjoying the show; it seemed kind of slow at the beginning but picked up quickly. If only Invasion had moved a little faster--it might still be on.
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Nov 13, 2007 9:25 AM
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It's a shame this one's probably not going to last; Invasion is a good comparison - started slow, but is really picking up steam now.
The best change in recent weeks is Katie's increased acceptance of what's going on. Katie's line about Dan going back in time to a key party and "only being turned on by Nixon" was hilarious. So good to see her trusting him more and getting into the mystery herself.
The big reveal about Livia was interesting too. Everyone's been hating her since the series started, but I still believe she plays a part in the grander story, so give it some time. We all want her to tell us more, but if she just blurted everything out in one episode, we wouldn't have any mystery left, and we would have missed out on fun reveals like last night's.
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Nov 13, 2007 9:29 AM
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I feel this may have been the best episode so far. It seems like things are coming together. the professor who definitely knows more than he's letting on. the "counterfeit bill" Jack tuned in and the Feds questions about this perhaps will make Jack start to believe Dan is time traveling
We discover Livia is a time traveler from the past traveling into the future while Dan is time traveing back into the past somehow their paths crossed but they aren't meant to be together in the "present" . So that blew the theory many of us had last week that Livia was "leaving" for good saying "goodbye" .
I have to say I flat out love this show. It's become one of my new Favorites. I dont' see why the critics are always bashing it! Ijsut hope it isn't going to be hurt by the strike.
think there's any chance of it being picked up by Cable if NBC let's it go. They could do like NBC did with
Law& Order CI and run it on USA or perhaps Sci-fi mightt pic it up?
Regarding the strike any chance shows like the Nine or Daybreak that didn't get their full run last season could be be brought back to finish out their runs maybe even give them a second chance?
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Nov 13, 2007 9:36 AM
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This show is definitely picking up some steam. Even my wife who has hated this show from the beginning was intrigued by this episode.
(I do hate how gray this show is filmed -- whenever it comes on my wife fiddles with the controls on the TV to try to add some more color.)
A couple of things not mentioned so far in this blog about this episode:
1) Quartz -- both Dr. Langley and one of the hippies mentioned it and its time-keeping properties. I don't think that Dr. Langley was the hippie, but we are getting more clues as to how & why the time travel is taking place.
2) The $20 Bill -- In the final scene, Jack pays for a drink in a bar with a new (present day) $20 bill. I believe that this is the bill the FBI agent assumed had been switched. The FBI agent had left the bill in the evidence pouch on his desk. I think that Jack took the bill and deliberately spent it so it would be lost and not be used to build a case against Dan.
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Nov 13, 2007 10:18 AM
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(duplicate post)
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Nov 13, 2007 10:20 AM
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I have to wonder: Are we going to see that green truck (or it's driver) again? Before Dan popped back it said that Abby was last seen getting into a green pick-up. And I could totally see the guy being scared off by Jack and taking off, but to turn around and come back and wait like that through most of the scene and take off again... That truck feels important.
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Nov 13, 2007 10:26 AM
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Doug, I thought the same thing about that 20 at the end of the episode but failed to mention it.
And I def. don't think we've seen the last of the green truck. There had to be some reason for it to come back again after Dan showed up to save Abby. I think they deliberately made it stand out in the scene so its easy to spot when it shows up in future episodes.
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Nov 13, 2007 10:38 AM
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dougmathtx--I agree that the show is too dimly lit, or they're using a weird filter on the camera lens. They could at least vary the lighting between present-day and his travels. I forgot to mention in my original comment that I thought Jack took the suspicious bill and used it at the bar. Not that I've forgiven him for being so obnoxiously driven to "prove" that Dan was in trouble, or am ready to like him yet.
vlfranklin--that scene with the green pickup was rather odd. It's one thing for Dan to prevent Abigail from getting into the truck and shooing it away; it's another to have it return and just sit there, rather ominously, as she gets into the van with the hippies. Either the driver was really determined to get ahold of Abby, or there is some deeper purpose there.
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Nov 13, 2007 10:40 AM
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dougmathtx, I had the same thought about the $20. We should know soon enough if we're correct.
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Nov 13, 2007 10:41 AM
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Last night ROCKED! If Livia can spend several years in one time, could the same thing happen to Dan eventually? Why did their lives intersect? So many questions to be answered before they run out of scripts. 
The fact that Jack took the $20 from evidence and spent it at the bar (he drinks alone, just like the FBI guy said)indicates that he's beginning to believe Dan. I think Jack may be let in on the secret soon. Speaking of money, now the McCleen cash will be found at the scene of that armed robbery back in 1974...was that before or after McCleen's disappearance? Hmmm.
I don't think Dr. Langley is evil, but time will tell. He couldn't have been one of the hippies, because both men were killed in the armed robbery.
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Nov 13, 2007 10:48 AM
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Quartz -- both Dr. Langley and one of the hippies mentioned it and its time-keeping properties. I don't think that Dr. Langley was the hippie, but we are getting more clues as to how & why the time travel is taking place
dougmathtx, I was thinking similarly. When the hippie talked about the Quartz, I jumped up, well as much as I could ☺, and said, "that’s how Langley seems to know! He remembers Dan”. But then I thought Langley would have been in college at that point to be as knowledgeable and respected as he seems to be today; his little brother, maybe?
Some other point, however, is if the Fed really is looking into the money, wouldn’t they trace most of it back to the store robbery?
Jack trying to plead the inappropriate search and seizure to the Fed, his taking, at least I think, the $20 from the Fed’s won him a cautious, and tentative, reprieve from my most hated character list.
I will admit, though I ˝ expected Jack to flash-out in the middle of having sex with Katie and her saying a one liner like, “What? No snuggling?”
think there's any chance of it being picked up by Cable if NBC let's it go
Sci-Fi, NBC’s cousin, would be a great place for this. With Doctor Who being off right now, no SG-1 and that deplorable Flash Gordon, it’s Fridays have been quiet. All I do is DVR Stargate: Atlantis and watch CBS the whole night. Last season it was all Sci-Fi. They need a good show to get back the sci-fi Fridays.
Oh, I’ll wager the nets take the strike into consideration before they flat out cancel a show.
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Nov 13, 2007 11:06 AM
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My mind is just jarred trying to keep up with the hijackers money. I thought Dan used it all last trip. Livia took the entire valise with her when she time travelled. How did it get back into the house? Plus, it was empty when the FBI agent looked through it. How did Dan get the money to give to the Hippies? AHHH! My mind is unravelling.... Can somebody please 'splain so I can understand?
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Nov 13, 2007 11:33 AM
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The satchel was empty because Kate put the money in his Jacket. The Fed was so busy arguing with Dan he was paying attention to the wife. Dan turned around after talking to the Fed and having his cas searched and Kate put his Jacket on him and ne noticed the cash in his pocket and tapped the jacket and gave Kate and extra long look of appreciation.
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Nov 13, 2007 11:39 AM
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I have loved this show from the beginning. And don't even get me started on Invasion. I'm still not over that!
I don't feel that Dr. Langley is evil either. I think he and the bomb-guy from last week's episode physically resemble each other with the only difference being age; hence my idea that Langley time-travels too. I was really intrigued by the bomb-guy's departing comment to Dan: "Nice shoes." I wonder if that was somehow symbolic.
And the $20 bill was definitely swapped out by Jack. He's still a goof in my books, but I think he may be starting to put the pieces together. A big Homer Simpson "DOH" here.
If you love this show and enjoy reading, I highly recommend "The Time Traveller's Wife" by Audrey Niffenegger. (Hope it's okay to do that here.) I am praying this show sticks.
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Nov 13, 2007 11:50 AM
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