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« Vanished
November 10, 2006: "The New World"
At last, the horrific truth can be told: the Vanished Sara Collins has been deprived of adequate food, water and foundation garments. What's more, her abductors are shooting her up, Dr. Bones McCoy-style, with drugs that disorient her, make her susceptible to inane Brainwashing 101 suggestions, and have her talking as if she is wearing orthodontic headgear. Speaking of Sara's captors, this week's episode put a new face on the mysterious-in-a-TV-serial-kind-of-way group, in the form of a rather Anglo preppie. What is their next tactic, to threaten to make Sara shop last season's Lacoste styles? The inhumanity.
Speaking of Chad/Biff-the-Masonic-kidnapper, the casting is so obvious in its "Let's go against the grain" thinking that it's distracting and thus rendered ineffective. Hmm, do we go with an older, perhaps scarred, furled-brow gent of non-descript foreign origins? Nah, let's shake things up with a J. Crew model! If I was Sara, I'd be all, "Listen, your threats didn't work with Delta House, they won't work with me."
Elsewhere, "on the outside," we learned in derivative CSI effect that Gray-Haired Guy had an RFID transmitter implanted in his palm, to access areas which Agent Lucas almost instantly tracked down, thanks to super-speedy exposition. Although I didn't need to see that lady doc slice it out of the corpse's hand, the idea seems cool. I was about to ask TV Guide's building security to do the same with my card key, but I then realized that the downstairs Au Bon Pain probably wouldn't invest in the electronic readers, thus locking me out of my 10 percent employee discount.
As for Marcy, I give her credit for having some spunk, for threatening to reveal that she is carrying (non-surprise alert!) Judge Rainer's baby, and not Heath Ledger Jr.'s. Now that the Judge has called her bluff, I have to wonder how Marcy gets out of this without wearing a toe tag. I don't see our antagonists letting a morally casual coed ruin the Supreme Court nom they have been so desperate to secure.
My only other comment on this week: What was up with the prolonged glances and uncomfortable pauses when Lucas found Kelton's ex cleaning out his office? Some adulterous history there that will never have a chance to be revisited in subsequent seasons? I half expected her to turn around, look back at Lucas and tell him, "My daughter.... Graham... he isn't the father.... Judge Rainer is. Hey, the guy is surprisingly fertile for a fiftysomething Republican."
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Nov 13, 2006 8:19 AM
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I was quite disappointed that the Nikki & the fisherman & her daughter plotline appears to have been dropped. What happened to it? I thought surely we would see her parents again, too. I feel as if I'm watching The DaVinci Code now. And that's not what I liked.
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Nov 13, 2006 8:57 AM
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I was quite disappointed that the Nikki & the fisherman & her daughter plotline appears to have been dropped. What happened to it?
Maybe the fisherman (aka Josh Hopkins) has been too busy "reeling in" Calista Flockhart on Brothers & Sisters?
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Nov 13, 2006 10:11 AM
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So, is the fisherman going to be the "Chuck Cunningham" of Vanished?
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Nov 13, 2006 2:42 PM
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The only way I can explain my continued viewing is to compare it to a raging building fire. I should look away, yet I can't. I was still laughing at the end of the show at the way Ming Na stood her ground in front of the speeding SUV and shouted "FBI!" I was shocked they didn't stop and surrender right there. Loved her on ER, but here she's either out of her element or the direction is laughable. Probably a bit of both.
And for FBI agents neither she or her partner can apparently hit the broad side of a barn with their shooting "skills". Man, they really need to spend some time at the range; with all the lead flying in the air no bad guys were even winged.
Vanished, I dub thee Showgirls of the small screen.
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Nov 13, 2006 2:54 PM
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Has no one recognized Gray-Haired Guy as the same man who discredited fisherguy's Nikki story to the competing reporter?
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Nov 14, 2006 7:59 PM
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Is Matt going to review the online episodes now that they're off the air?
Just watched the latest one and it was 2 steps forward and 1 back ... with Judy Nash summing it all up nicely at the end.
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Nov 17, 2006 12:44 PM
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Maybe its just me, but I watched the next episode online and by far it made mores sense than any of the prior episodes.
How can the take it off the air when they could have burned these episodes off on the air instead of that mind numbing "Trading Spouses"? The first episode where the reasons behind the kidnapping, at least the who and why, start to come into focus. Good performances, not much wasted airspace - this is just too little, too late I guess.
How many more episodes are going to air on youtube?
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Nov 20, 2006 12:37 PM
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You're right bhm1304 - this last episode did brings things more in line and so quickly, too, that I have to wonder why the writers ran around in so many circles up to this point. Huh. Anyway, at least we're getting to the meat of it ...
Love Reed Diamond and wish he'd be a regular on a series again instead of guest-starring ...
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Nov 21, 2006 12:03 PM
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Well ... not that they had a choice but to wrap things up now that the show will not go on, but Sara appears to be on her way back to her family. Like how she hid out with the dead deer (ew) and then jumped out of the truck to introduce herself to the sheriff at the roadblock.
Of course, we all know it won't be that easy for her. The goons will realize they've been found out and will try to stop her return. Some more bullets will fly. The decoder doohickey - I don't get it. They better come clean with that mystery soon and it better not be a copycat of DaVinci Code, either. That would be too easy.
The stately gentlemen is a little grating as well. Why the Nathan cards? other than saying he sent them to Kelton, will we ever learn why - I mean, beyond the connection to Kelton's old case.
Only 4 more left ... and like a train wreck, I will watch every one of them!
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Nov 27, 2006 3:34 PM
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HELP!!! I am a techno-idiot. I don't know how to get the episodes on line. If someone would tell me how to do it or, even better, if they would be reviewed here, I would be very happy. I want to know what's behind this & how it all ends. PLEASE HELP ME!
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Nov 29, 2006 12:29 PM
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To watch episodes of Vanished, go to myspace.com/fox. I think only the last 3 episodes are on there.
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Nov 29, 2006 3:55 PM
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In a nutshell, Sara hitched a ride, then knocked the driver out after he got too fresh (good riddance), Max and the real mom came back (I wonder how long that will last?), Lucas found Quinn Keeler and she showed him where Sara was brainwashed (I guess it was after the brainwashing when Sara thought she was Nikki and went to Mass. where she found the fisherman-who hadn't been "Chuck Cunninghamed", thank God!), and that fisherman found that Sara's girl is indeed his daughter. That may not be enough for those not able to see the remaining eps online but maybe they'll whet your curiosity if they come on DVD...
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Dec 4, 2006 2:25 PM
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Not that I've ever been kidnapped and held underground so long I didn't know what day it was, but I've seen enough movies and watched enough TV to know that your kidnappers will try to brainwash you into thinking your family doesn't want you anymore and that you NEVER EVER EVER leave a phone off the hook! And what happened to the sleazy guy's cell phone? It was in the car and Sara could have used that instead of the pay phone, which is how she was tracked down.
Anyone catch the look on Jessica's face? She knew it was Sara calling - I wonder if she's in on it?
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Dec 4, 2006 2:37 PM
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Is anyone left out there who still watches this online?!
The Fox website says the series finale was today - but unlike what was promised, there were NO ANSWERS really. Sara is not back with her family - we don't know why those scrolls were so darn important - I'm so frustrated ...
And yet - what a fitting end to such an unsatisfying ride. From the beginning, this story moved too slow, and the acting wasn't that great. Now it's over and I hope FOX lost a great deal of money on this!
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Dec 8, 2006 12:21 PM
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