Cast:
- Matt Dallas ... Kyle
- April Matson ... Lori Trager
- Jean-Luc Bilodeau ... Josh Trager
- Chris Olivero ... Declan McDonough
- Kirsten Prout ... Amanda
- Jaimie Alexander ... Jessi XX
- Magda Apanowicz ... Andy Jensen
- J. Eddie Peck ... Adam Baylin
- Nicholas Lea ... Tom Foss
- Bill Dow ... Professor Kern
- Martin Cummins ... Brian Taylor
Official Summary:
Lori, still trying to get over being attacked, insists everyone go on an outing. Declan and Kyle realize her picnic spot is right next to Zzyxx and try to dissuade her, but Lori is having none of it. Then Jessi invites herself along. When Lori taunts everyone into following her into some tunnels, Jessi and Kyle are overcome by flashbacks. For Kyle, what he learns supplies important information -- he can trust Foss but not Taylor. But Jessi, freaked out by seeing herself suspended in the pod, unleashes a burst of energy that makes a vent burst, filling the locked-down tunnels with gas.
Key Moments:
This episode reveals a great deal about the events at Zzyzx that led directly to Kyle's scheduled termination and subsequent rescue. The show continues its regrettable compulsion to paint secondary characters as cartoon extremes of black and white, as the flashback Kern stomps around describing Kyle as an "it" and trying to use his unconscious but functional megabrain to formulate offensive military scenarios. Meanwhile, Amanda, previously distinguished by her ability to serenely let Charlie walk all over her, develops enough of a backbone to snap at the reprogrammed Jessi, "Kyle is with me!"
Cute Trager Family Drama of the Week:
Lori develops the mildest drinking problem ever -- and the most ephemeral.
Biggest Mystery:
The "Don't Trust Foss" message that Adam sent to Kyle was hidden and triple-encoded, sent from one genius to another. Yet this episode seems to imply it was tampered with. So are we supposed to believe that suit-and-tie power-yuppie Taylor was able to screw around with this message in the days before Adam was killed? And if the message was originally "Don't Trust Taylor," how did Taylor even find out about the message, much less get anywhere near it? Or did Taylor "tamper" with Adam himself, inducing him somehow to send the wrong message? Oh, and another thing: Where the heck
was Foss the last two weeks, anyway?
Bottom Line: Worth Watching?:
This was a good way to bring in some much-needed clarification of the Zzyzx backstory, with the downloaded security videos being a useful (if slightly contrived) extension of Kyle's previously established ability to walk around in his own memories.
