Dreams are not real, but sometimes dreams reveal what we wish was real
In what should have been a routine case of an occult abduction gone wrong, it turned into more of a semi-zombie apocalypse. A woman was taken from her truck rental shop to be anointed by a cult leader seeking recruits, and after she rejected his offer to become one of his living-dead zombies, he had her buried alive. However, she was not actually dead, the neurotoxin she inhaled made her seem that way. So when Vince Faraday (David Lyons) was asked by Max (Keith David) and Rollo (Martin Klebba) what happened to their friend, his investigation revealed that the missing woman had clawed her way out of a coffin. A simple search turned up the missing woman and as the neurotoxin she had inhaled wore off she slowly regained her mind. But that was just the beginning of this bizarre and twisted tale of zombie domination.
Elsewhere, Peter Fleming (James Frain) was making a move to buy Palm City’s seaport so that he could ship in and out his chemical weapons without the oversight of any other governmental authority. The wrinkle in that plan was that the seaport was not actually owned by the City and was instead owned by the Chandler family who appeared to have died out decades ago. Fortunately, Commissioner of Prisons Patrick Portman (Richard Schiff) had done a bit of digging and found that there was still a living Chandler, a lost child by the name of Conrad Chandler (Glenn Fitzgerald). But as Orwell embarked on her own investigation to locate Conrad Chandler, she fell into his evil clutches – for Conrad had lost his mind years before and now went by the name of The Lich. Alas, The Lich’s tenuous grasp on his sanity did not prevent him from becoming an expert in neurotoxins however, and he was intent on slowly amassing an army of mindless servants or living-zombies to do his bidding. When Orwell showed up with his missing Certificate of Birth, he was only too happy to recruit her to be his Frankenstein bride.
Without Orwell to provide the vital link he needed to figure out what was going on in this horror story gone wrong, Vince had to utilize other means to figure out who was behind the pending neurotoxin attack on Palm City. With a bit of aid from his old partner Marty and his ex-wife Dana (Jennifer Ferrin) and her new boss Travis (Mather Zickel), Vince slowly pieced together the mystery of who had kidnapped Orwell and foiled The Lich’s plans to dose the residents of Palm City with the neurotoxin.
Points of Interest
1. Is Orwell’s real name Jamie or Julia? She was referred to as Jamie in her dreams, but Vince called her Julia. Who is she really? Why did Vince think her name was Julia?
2. And what is behind the mysterious white door that Orwell kept seeing in her hallucinations? What is the significance of that door? Does it hold the secrets of what happened to her mother?
3. Then the best line of the night came from Rollo who noted, “An insane asylum filled with zombies? I don’t even know what to say to that.” Priceless!
What Worked
This was not episode that focused on Vince as The Cape and it was refreshing to see Vince acting more as a cop and not just a vigilante hell-bent on vengeance. Instead, Vince had to use his analytic skills and his contacts within the Palm City justice system to obtain the information he needed to stop The Lich. It was less about the quasi-magical abilities of the cape he wears and more about the man who wears it. It gave us a sense of the man who was perfectly capable of solving crimes and keeping the peace before he became a masked crusader. So when Max initially said, “Leave the cape, we need the cop,” it was a nice foreshadowing of how much more vital and useful Vince can be without his alter-ego persona.
It was great to see that Police Chief Marty Voyt (Dorian Missick) has not wholly abandoned his sense of duty to the people of Palm City and was willing to trust The Cape to stop the neurotoxin attack and get The Cape out of a sticky situation with the Arc police.
Finally, the big reveal in this two-part story was the hidden desires of Orwell’s subconscious mind. While hallucinating, Orwell dreamed of Vince as her groom on her wedding day. Instead of conjuring visions of some other man in her life or another nameless person, she chose Vince. He is the man of her dreams – a hidden and forbidden desire. Yet even in her drug-induced haze, she had her wits about her enough to know that it could not be real. When she grabbed the knife and cut her hand, she determinedly said, “I need to know if this is real — no pain, this isn’t really happening.” But as her dream-version of Vince asked, “Finish the dance anyway?” Orwell allowed herself to be seduced back into the fictional world. And as the tears fell, she cried both in her dream because she knew it was not real and simultaneously as she cried in the real world because she wanted the dream to be real. Instead, what is real in Orwell’s life is a living nightmare – not just being kidnapped, drugged and nearly married to a monster, but because she must hide who she is, is haunted by the thought that her father may have killed her mother, and cannot pursue a relationship with the man she dreams of because he is married.
It was therefore very touching in the end as Vince came to Orwell’s rescue and she softly said, “You were here all along, weren’t you?” Vince may not have been the man in her dreams about to marry her, but he was the man who was there to save her. Like a husband, he watches out for her and cares for her. It may not be the dream, but it does make a nice reality to wake up to. Orwell is not entirely alone and someone cares enough about her to move heavens and earth to keep her safe.
But, with Vince’s wife believing he his dead and perhaps looking to move on her life, it makes sense that Orwell would perceive Vince as available. However, in Vince’s mind, he still thinks of himself as a married man and it would not occur to him to look outside of his marriage to pursue a relationship with Orwell. Depending on what other obstacles arise to prevent Vince from returning to his prior life with Dana, there still could be chance at happiness and chance to build a life with Vince if Orwell allows her guard down. Right now Orwell is very closed-off to human connections and is guarded with how she feels about people. Will she choose to purse happiness or step-aside so that one day Vince may return to Dana?
What Didn’t Work
It was hard to believe that Dana Faraday would feel so guilt-ridden that she would nearly have a breakdown over having casual touched her boss Travis Hall’s arm during a group dinner. A startled look would have been enough to clue in viewers that she was shaken by the inadvertent gesture.
Giving Credit Where Credit Is Due
“The Lich” (part 1) was written by William Wheeler and directed by Karen Gaviola; “The Lich” (part 2) was written by Toni Graphia and Robbie Thompson, and directed by Roxann Dawson. “The Cape” stars David Lyons, Summer Glau, Keith David, James Frain, Dorian Missick, Vinnie Jones, Martin Klebba, Jennifer Ferrin and Ryan Wynott. “The Cape” airs Mondays at 9:00 pm on NBC.
Thank you for the clarification on Orwell’s name. That one had me a bit confused. :)
Orwell’s real name is Jamie, which is why when Vince called her “Jamie” in the dream sequence, she knew it wasn’t really him; she never told him her real name.
However, “Julia” is the alias that Vince came up with when he introduced her in the Kozmo the Unkillable episode. So, it sorta made sense that when he was talking about her with Max & Rollo, he would refer to her as “Julia” since that’s the only name they know her by.