TV Review: Surface Episode 1.04

Monday, October 10, 2005

From NBC: When Daughtery (Lake Bell) and Jackson (Austin Nichols) encounter one of the unidentified species at sea, Daughtery fires a GPS tracking device into it in an effort to keep track of it. Meanwhile, Rich (Jay R. Ferguson) is beginning to think he is getting over his brothers death but when he sees photos of sinkholes similar to those in his visions he has a relapse. Elsewhere, Circo (Rade Sherbedgia) testifies before the Pentagon that this unidentified species is extremely dangerous and Lee (Ian Anthony Dale) tries to talk him out of it. Leighton Meester and Carter Jenkins also star.

My Rating:

This episode of Surface continues following the three who have seen this creature up close and personal. Each has their own path to take with this journey, but we do know sooner or later the three will meet up together. This week's episode starts in the Caribbean where a young girl tells her mother that there are monsters in the water. The woman ignores her daughter until she comes up to her while holding a largish squid. This certainly grabs the woman's attention, and she asks her daughter where she found the squid. When the little girl points away from her, the mother and everyone else sees tons of squid washed up on the beach shore. Most are even still living, but not for long.

Once calamari becomes the meal of the day at the restaurant Laura is now working at, she becomes curious. Turns out two tons of squid were brought in that day. This makes her curious and she wonders if a creature is the cause of the restaurant's recent squid windfall. She goes to a friend of hers with a boat, and talks him into taking her out to look for whales. She can't certainly tell him the real reason for her trip now can she?

The two end up out on the ocean waters after some pressuring on her part, and they soon make a discovery of dead whales. Some still alive. When Laura wants to go investigate, they find the creature is still in the waters around them. She sends her friend chasing after it, but the creature makes a turn and goes at the boat, releasing a pulse that damages all the boats electronic systems and sending Laura to unconsciousness. This means the two are stuck with the creature until the next morning when they can try to repair the boat so it will start.

During that night, we learn that the man she turned to is a past fling, and it appears he still has feelings for her, but she has no interest in the man whatsoever. The next day, the man goes into the water to discover he can't fix the boat himself because his hands are too big to fit where he needs to get into. This sends Laura down into the water. While down there, she is visited once again by the creature. - a quite calm creature I might add. She comes up for air, and asks Jackson for the GPS device she had attached to a spear gun, and she goes back under with just enough time to shoot the device onto the animal. She can now track the species as this one creature swims through the ocean depths. This pleases her!

Back on land, Rich and Miles are both dealing with things as best they can. Rich has come to believe that his brother is still alive and trying to communicate to him through water. His wife thinks he has lost it, and sends him to a doctor. The doctor prescribes medication for him. When he loses his job, the wife takes their two daughters and leaves him. This gives him some time on his own to think things through, and he decides to go down back underwater to where he last saw his brother alive. After a brief amount of time, he comes back and it appears he is ready to give up on everything related to the creature. That is until he returns home, and he sees a picture in the newspaper left by his friend of the sinkhole in Texas. A picture that has an eerie resemblance to one of the pictures he had drawn during this crazy time.

As for Miles, he has found yet another home for Nimrod, the infant creature he is raising. This new home being in his friend's backyard swimming pool. Nim seems to like his new home, and at this point Phil decides to use their new pet to try to win a girl for himself. However, the girl he tells about the creature has no interest in him, but Miles. When Miles hears what his friend did, he isn't happy, but he continues on with the story in order to see about the girl's interest in him. He does invite her to meet Nim, and she comes by with her tiny dog along for the trip. When they get close to kissing, she laughs and backs off. It had all been some cruel joke to play on Miles. However, the joke ends up being on her when Nim comes up out of the water and drags her tiny dog under. Good-bye doggie!

Now about the government and scientific cover-up? Circo testifies in front of the Pentagon about the new creature and how dangerous it is. He tells the collected officials about it using the example of a small creature that has similar attributes to the creature he and others have discovered. Strange occurrences keeps happening. The new one being what appears to be a side affect of The Greenhouse Effect. Frozen lakes melting and weather balloons falling from their perches in the heavens. The Pentagon doesn't see the seriousness of the events, but Circo and Lee are both going to work towards them doing that.

Another good episode for this show. This show has its slow moments, but those work up to moments that have you waiting on the edge of your seat. We all knew the little dog would become dinner, and we also knew the creature would make an appearance. I think what surprised me here is how calm the creature was with Laura and Jackson. Yes, it made an initial pulse, but it let the boat set there all night, and it even came within inches of Laura under water and didn't do a thing. It even allowed her to shoot at it with the device.

This had me scratching my head here just a bit because this is so unlike the creature's previous behavior. It just made me go ... hmm! However, it didn't totally ruin this episode. In fact, it made things a bit more interesting. However, it did lower the believability factor just a tad. Sort of like when a character totally acts of character in one episode, but then is totally fine the next episode. The character in question here being the creature. Next week looks to be really good, and if the previews tell anything the three main human characters of this program should be meeting up sooner rather than later.

For those that have missed this show and you want to join in the fun here: Sci-fi channel is planning a Surface marathon airing the first four episodes on Tuesday night. Check your local listings for times in your area!