TVSquad

(S01E13) "It's not a curse. It's a calling." - Dan

"Time changes everything," says the Journeyman official website. In the TV world, ratings change everything because if it weren't for so-so ratings, Journeyman wouldn't be facing cancellation right about now. Let's hope, Rice-A-Roni can change everything too!

What could be the last (gulp!) episode ever of NBC's time-traveling series aired a few hours ago and I'm still in denial that this could be the last we saw of Dan Vasser. At least the creator and writers got the hint that this could be the final episode ever soon enough to make it a potential series finale. Even if we didn't get answers to all our questions (back to that after the jump), we at least got some closure.

Before I get to my review of "Perfedia," let's review the questions I asked at the end of my review of Monday's episode.

• Why Dan and Livia travel? How are all the people they save come together in the end? - We don't know what the end game is but we know they travel to change realities. Langley said that no one was "doing anything." What did he meant by that? Surely someone must decide who needs to be rescued, no?
  
• How do they travel? - Unknown. We don't know how it is controlled, who decides when they have to go back and for how long, etc.
  
• Who is behind time-traveling (aka the puppet master)? - Langley said that people are watching him; therefore he is not the puppet master. We don't know who is.
  
• Is Frank a time-traveler or involved with the organization behind traveling? - Unknown.
  
• When does traveling stop? Will they have to do it until they die? - It seems sedatives can do the trick. However, it is unknown when traveling stops if you don't take the pills.
  

Time-traveling

The show's creator said that we would get answers and closure in the finale and he was right. Okay, we didn't get all answers but still, I'm satisfied with what he was able to put in the episode and how "Perfidia" ended. If he had crammed everything in a one-hour episode, we would have complained of answers overload and that things were too rushed. Plus, they needed to leave some things hanging in case a miracle happens and the show is picked up.

I already listed above a few of the answers we were given in the episode, so I won't rehash those. It was really interesting to hear Evan explain how he tried to change the future to save his wife and that things turned bad to ugly, thus triggering him to ensure they would never meet. Dan knows how a bump in the past can affect the present/future but hearing how things ended up for Evan was surely a new wakeup call for Dan. I bet he'll be more cautious during his future travels.

Another important piece of information Evan said was that if your traveling self meets your past self, it'll go really bad. This, once again, reminds me of the Back to the Future movies when Doc Brown tells Marty that meeting your other self it could create a tear in the space-time continuum. We know that when Evan bumped into his other self, it ended up having him sent to the cuckoo's nest and that the sedatives prevented him from traveling. Is it what broke the "system" Langley talked about? Yet another thing to ponder on.

Langley also told Dan that he was the last time-traveler. Dan said no and refused to say who else was traveling. After hearing that and remembering what Livia and Dan told each other before Livia last disappeared, I wondered if Langley's statement was accurate at the precise moment he said it. Could it be that this was Livia's last travel? Bear with me a second. I suspect that when a traveler dies another is "hired." So, as stated in the episode, when Evan died, Dan started to travel. So what if Livia's last mission was to be by Dan's side while he helped Evan reunite with his lost love and then die? When she completed that last task, maybe she was freed from her traveling duties? Another theory could be that Livia is part of the system breaking down; she sort of fell through a crack so Langley thinks she's not a traveler anymore when in fact she is. If Livia did indeed fell in one of the system's cracks, maybe that's why she can travel outside of her lifetime? Then again, maybe she is still alive in 2007! She did say "I'm supposed to be dead" when she was in 2007 but we know she never got on that plane so maybe her older self is hiding somewhere around the world.... another unanswered question! What do you think? Let your voice be heard in comments.

Dan and Katie

This was a key episode for Dan and Katie. She wanted to get her husband and life back, yet still be supportive. To make things more complicated for Katie, her sister kept pushing for Katie to buy a new house. He wanted his life back too but, after hearing what Evan and Langley had to say, Dan decided he needed to answer his calling. After talking it over and Dan ensuring he would live up to his "I'll always come home" promise from the premiere, Katie decided to "leave the light on." That couple is definitely one of the best on TV nowadays: they are supportive of one another, through problems and heartaches. We need more of those. And what a fantastic way to end the episode by having Katie finally see her husband vanish?

Other tidbits of interest:

• Evan recognized Livia as a time traveler because of her shoes. I would have loved to see her shoes at that point to make my own assessment because, most of the time if not always, Livia appears in clothes that fit 2007 and not her own time.
• "Theresa is a big upgrade over the last one." - Katie to Jack. This statement and his reply make me think Jack never dated someone seriously since he broke up with Katie years ago. Theresa may or may not be an upgrade when compared to Katie but I think she is better suited to Jack than Katie was.

What comes next?

• We wait. Until the network confirms that the show is officially gone, there is still some hope. Let your voice be heard! Contact NBC, send Rice-A-Roni, and overload NBC.com's Journeyman's board.
  
• Another fun thing would be to write up fanfiction about what comes next. Personally, I'll pretend that Livia arrived in the past (her present) just in time for her wedding and that she lived happily ever after with Henry and was traveling free. I want Jack and Theresa to be together and raise their child. As for Dan, I will envision that he continued his travels without altering his own future with Katie and Zack and that they had a second child, Caroline.