One of the things that I like about Surface (one of many things) is that I really don't know
where it's going with its story. I had assumptions I made about where these creatures came from, and they turned out to
be wrong. I made an assumption on how the story was going to play out between Laura, Rich, and Miles, and I was
wrong on that too. So I'm not going to try to predict what's going to happen anymore. I'm just going to sit back
and enjoy the remaining episodes for this season.
Dr. Morris tells Laura all about how she came to work for "The Firm." They recruited her, offered her whatever she wanted in salary ($500,000), and hired her to work on strange experiments involving cloning and extinct species. Then Laura starts to get sick...the doctor has slipped something into her tea. She passes out.
She wakes up in the bushes next to a highway. She calls Rich to come get her. He was in Louisiana, confronting the divorce attorney his wife has hired.
On a boat, Miles (still experiencing weird gooey stuff on his fingertips - shades of Spiderman) takes gasoline and a flare and burns a ton of eggs that are in the water. He tries to explain to one of the researchers what has been happening to him (the electricity, the connection to Nim and the others), but the researcher thinks he is joking.
Laura and Rich try to get into the pharmeceutical company tied to the experiments. The search around a giant building that seems deserted and abandoned. Rich stumbles upon a room that (I think) has blood on the walls. A young child is crying under a desk and says "have you seen my mother?" Rich tries to help the child, but it's actually some creature (monkey? babboon?), that jumps out and attacks Rich (freaky scene!). Meanwhile, authorities tag Nim so he can lead them to the other creatures.
The creatures are coming ashore, and the authorities and townspeople line up on the shore to confront them. They start firing. (The show is starting to get vicious!) Most of the creatures make it ashore, and the townspeople/authorities go down in history like other townspeople/authorities in science fiction/horror movies: they don't accomplish much, and only succeed in making things worse. (Come on, guns? No, use fire!)
Miles kisses Caitlan and walks into the water, to get the creatures away from land. At first I thought it was going to turn into that scene in Splash where Daryl Hannah goes back to the water to live, but I see in scenes from next week Miles is back.
Meanwhile, Dr. Morris gives Laura a lead - a name of someone that knows more about the experiments. Lee confronts Dr. Morris. He tells her she has violated company policy by disclosing everything to Laura. She asks him if she can e-mail her family and friends before she has to, um, "go." He lets her.
Laura and Rich go to a library to see his archive of materials. They find an old film reel from 1957, of an expedition in Asia involving that mysterious guy in the hat we saw in a greenhouse with Lee several episodes ago. The film shows the discovery of that weird plant Laura and Rich had, Cirko's plant. Also in this film from 1957? Lee, and he looks to be the same age as he is now. Hmmm...
Fantastic episode. It reached a suspense level you don't usually see on prime-time TV these days, at least in an 8pm sci-fi show. Two episodes left, and let's hope that means "SEASON finale" and not "SERIES finale."
Note: Stay tuned for an interview with Carter Jenkins (Miles) coming to TV Squad next week.
Andy Richter: The TV Squad Interview
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Mike Henry and Daryl Hall on a Cleveland Show Thanksgiving
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
2-07-2006 @ 1:00AM
LYNN KEMPTON said...
love this show. Miles and Nim are great. We should have such a dedicated pet as him to miles. Please bring this series back for 2006-2007. My family and I really need to find out what happens to Miles and crew. We know nimmy will live on.. go Nim.And how about stuffed nims,anyone know if they are out there yet to buy?? Need to have one..
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2-07-2006 @ 1:17AM
hondo said...
To the Pate brothers - Roger Corman and Ed Woods say "Thank You" - Speilberg may be a lil' pissed .. unless he's the man behind the hat! Doctor Doom! (Or something like that).
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2-07-2006 @ 2:23AM
sharon morgan said...
I love the show surface. I hope you bring it back next season. i cant wait to see what happens next. please do not cancel ths show. my whole family loves watching it.
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3-17-2008 @ 2:29AM
jan sterling said...
please go to savesurface.com and follow links to surface/firefly lounge and then go vote for surface - you can vote once an hour
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1-23-2006 @ 10:04PM
captainmicahp said...
That episode was so good, I like this show alot, but what game are they palaying, saying Finale. This show always seemed like a really long miniseries more than a regular show. It doesn't seem to be an openended mystery. once we find out where these things come from, and how to stop (or live in harmony) with the species, I dont know where they could go. But I love this show, at the end I always feel so frustrated that it is over and I have to wait another week. I cant think of any other show I feel that way about. So Good
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1-23-2006 @ 10:39PM
chris said...
I'm confused, you guys say "season finale", but NBC is saying "Gripping Finale!" and "All secrets will be revealed!" Is this really a miniseries, or is it some kind of strange PR on NBC's part?
On one hand, I don't see how they can wrap the story up nicely in two hours, especially with all three characters not having met up. On the other, its a pretty high-budget show, and the way they refer to episodes by number as opposed to some sort of title always suggested "miniseries" to me. Does Surface even have the ratings to go on?
Meh. Time to stop thinking and start enjoying the ride, I guess.
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1-23-2006 @ 10:47PM
e said...
This is good writing. Lost takes too long to reveal things; by the time anything happens all the suspense has been sucked completely out of it. This show works out slowly but the surprises are very gratifying. If only Battlestar Galactica was written this well. Well, at least there are a number of good/great shows on now.
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1-23-2006 @ 11:54PM
Elle said...
I will be really upset if this is the last two episodes of this show. It is one of the very few show that are worth watching lately, I am so tired of "reality" shows! This show is so entertaining. I would really hate to see it go, and so would all of the people I watch it with!
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1-24-2006 @ 12:54AM
p said...
-- Despite fears that "Surface's" February 6 installment is being billed as the "finale," the show remains under consideration for the 2006-07 season. That being said, the season finale "will provide a sort of semi-closure."
http://www.thefutoncritic.com/cgi/newswire.cgi?id=7066
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1-24-2006 @ 7:58AM
Willy said...
I took my dog for a walk at 8, comforted in the fact that my TiVo would record the episode. For some unknown reason, the TiVo failed to record!? So: thanks for the recap. I tuned just as the creature was attacking Rich, and I was soooo confused.
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1-24-2006 @ 2:16PM
TJ said...
The creature that attacked Rich must be the missing link!
The scientists got Miles to tag Nim, so I'm kind of surprised he didn't get attacked at the shore.
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1-24-2006 @ 2:42PM
The Phil said...
Quick addition: Dr. Morris asked for 500.000 and was immediately accepted. Then she asked "If I added another zero?" and the guy gave her back the paper so this implies that her salary was 5million.
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1-24-2006 @ 10:24PM
TonyinLA said...
Loved the episode and think the show is great. I am glad to hear that the 'finale' will wrap things up enough...how many genre shows dont see a 2nd season and have unsatisfying endings.
One scifi convention that is pushing credibility is that this whole things is still not being covered by the media. The story on 'Countdown' was treated as a hoax only getting conspiracy nuts believing. Hasnt anyone in the media noticed what is going on in North Carolina where they have actually had one of the creatures?? Now that the city has held public meetings and a public 'creature shoot' there can be no more excuse for this to not 'break big' in the next week (how esle could the communtiy all know where to go if it werent covered in the media...and therefore how could there not be cameras at the actual 'shoot the creatures' party)
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1-25-2006 @ 8:55AM
Shawn Smallwood said...
i'm not expert, but small towns like that probably just felt like they could handle the situation on thier own. Considering thier success they'll probably (if they're smart) alert the local government outside of the sheriff. There have been sightings all over the world if I'm not mistaken, so if a report came up the ladder they probably just brushed it off. Maybe we'll see more information about that next week considering the hunt (controlled hunts like this happen from time to time. I live in md. where we had the snakehead fish...very similar to what happened last night actually now that I think about it.)
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1-25-2006 @ 9:31AM
Larry said...
Did anyone else notice the glaring similarities to Jaws in the scene where all the townies were gathering to dicuss hunting down the "not-Nims"? Same firing squad of town officials (although it looked like mostly cops this time), same offer of a reward, same inappropriate jokes... even the room looked the same. All that was missing was Quint. Loved the nod of the head to the original summer blockbuster.
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1-25-2006 @ 12:07PM
Chadly said...
I feel like I'm in the twilight zone the last few weeks. I see everyone raving about how good these last two episodes have been, yet my wife and I both feel like the show has totally jumped the shark. We were HUGE fans at first but lately it feels like it has deteriorated just when it SHOULD be getting really great. The banter between Laura and Rich is pretty much intolerably annoying at this point. I've never been a fan of Rich and I feel like he's actually dumbing down Laura.
I'm hanging in till the end, hoping it will redeem itself. I am interested in what's going on with Miles, though disappointed to see his entire town turn into Every Hick Town Faced With Strange Creatures In A Movie Ever. I'd like to see whats up with unaging Lee and the funky space flower. There's still a lot of unanswered questions out there that I want to see the answers to, but I hope the next two episodes are better than the last.
Also, am I the only one who feels like the whole mechanism of bringing in Dr. Morris then getting rid of her immediately was a cheap and heavy-handed way of moving along the story when Laura and Rich were stuck?
I did enjoy seeing Miles go all Willard with the Nim-critters. I've always empathized the most with Miles, and his storyline for the most part remains pretty enjoyable.
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1-25-2006 @ 5:43PM
Marc said...
I agree with Chadly.
This show's first 10 episodes were GREAT. Now, it's just limping to the finish (with the exception of Martha Plimpton's first episode).
You can tell the show-runner and/or writers were told by the network to raise ratings, but it's only led to lower quality shows.
What are the ratings on this show? I don't expect to see it next year, but what do I know?
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1-25-2006 @ 5:46PM
Marc said...
That new title sequence was LAME.
UGh.
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1-27-2006 @ 12:23PM
floridAL said...
I've enjoyed this show since the beginning. It amazed me at how much action took place in each show, especially compared to the dismal "Invasion" where nothing ever happens. Since the creatures are worldwide, this show could branch off and create new characters in other locations and still retain some of its uniqueness like "Lost" does (in the way that it highlights character development.) But, if it tries to remain in its current small town with the three main characters, then I think it will plummet to the depths of the creatures' main habitat.
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1-28-2006 @ 7:01PM
Tom said...
I'm not a huge fan of this show, but I like it well enough. I won't cry if it doesn't come back next year, but I will definitely tivo and watch the rest of this year. As I've said before, this has been the most uneven show this year, but a tivo and a fast forward button makes it a pretty good little half hour.
All I really wanted to chime in on is the appearance and now the apparent disappearance of Martha Plimpton from the show. Her storyline and character were, to me, the high points of the season, and I don't see why writers and/or producers can't figure out a way to latch on to these interesting characters. But it seems to be a trend in popular tv these days (see Lost, and the biggest offender Battlestar Galactica).
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