By Jennifer Larson
In the first episode of this two-parter, Dan (Kevin McKidd) was instrumental in getting a serial kidnapper off the streets. The only problem, that wasn’t his mission. In last week’s episode of JOURNEYMAN, Dan was sent back to the early 1990s, where he was supposed to help a young girl get her life back on track, after he saved her from said kidnapper. While he was able to do all that, he couldn’t stand by and let the pervert continue to walk the streets. That may sound like a noble thing to do, but time is a tricky thing and now that Dan has messed with it, it could come back to haunt him. In fact, once the kidnapper gets out of jail, he targets Dan and his family to seek his revenge.
Meanwhile, our journeyman still has some time-trippin to do. This week he goes back to 1983, where he finds the origins of a criminal. But that means he has to leave Katie (Gretchen Egolf) to deal with the criminal in their time all by herself. This saving the world one person at a time is a pretty risky proposition. I mean who’s to say Dan is on the right track? The only person he has to help him navigate these strange events is his ex-fiancé, who is doing some time-traveling of her own. We recently learned that Livia (Moon Bloodgood) has been on the same mission for most of her life. The only difference is that Livia is traveling to her future, as she’s from the 1940s. I know, it gets a bit confusing, and we still have no real clue as to how or why this is happening to them, or if there are any other time-travelers out there for that matter. But that will have to wait for now, because Dan has to try and save his family from last week’s evil doer.
Tonight’s episode starts off with a bang, literally, when the kidnapper breaks into Dan’s house and shoots him in the shoulder. Apparently he’s a little bitter about Dan dropping the dime on him. It seems the big house hardened our resident child snatcher. Thank god time sucked Dan up into its vortex before the kidnapper had a chance to finish him off. Of course that leaves the kidnapper alone in his house seeking revenge, and let me tell you, he is not in a very good mood. But, there is hope, because that burgeoning criminal Dan is on the trial of in 1983 is none other than the felon who shot him.
Apparently, the kidnapper was an abused child himself. You see, that’s why people who harm children should be dealt with severely. Not only do they destroy the lives of the children they hurt, in many cases, they turn them into criminals themselves. But, with Dan on the scene, things have a chance of working out for everybody, including the smarmy character that’s after him and his family in the year 2007. Whoever is charge of Dan’s new career is giving him a chance to wipe the slate clean, and maybe even give that frightened little boy in 1983 the opportunity to live a normal life himself. However, Dan has to find a way to get around the kid’s abusive father, who happens to be a cop, first.
Meanwhile, the feds are still looking into Dan, and this guy seems to know a little something about what Dan is doing. Digging into Dan’s past isn’t like looking into the life of your everyday reporter. But now we have yet another mystery to unravel. How did this fed know to look for Dan’s handiwork in the cold cases of the bureau? And what did he mean when he said, “money always trips them up, they always end up needing it?” I smell government involvement in Dan’s new way of life. Ok, so I’m a conspiracy theorist, but honestly, how else does this guy seem to know so much? And on top of that, it turns out that there is no “official” investigation into Dan and the missing Dillon McClean money. Rogue investigator, or secret government conspiracy … I’ll leave that up to you. But for now, Dan has to continue to try and save the little boy in 1983 who ends up shooting him in 2007.
As it turns out, Dan won’t have to worry about that FBI agent, because the kidnapper killed him. That’s the bad news; the good news is that Dan was able to talk the shooter down before he could finish the job he started. Of course, now that the fed is out of the picture, we are left with more questions than answers. But, I think we’re all getting used to that by now … aren’t we?