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Disclaimer & some personal notes:

Its TNT and/or NBC playground – I don’t really know which. They own the characters, dialogues, plots, quotes etc. These analysis are for pure entertainment only – mostly my own.

About the analysis:
Ok, this will NOT be an episode guide, though you will find plenty of spoilers! My analysis are purely subjective, my opinion, my take. Simply for the reason that I’m the one on the keyboard!

Disagree with me? Let it be heard! Give feedback and gimme hell if you want! Write a note or your own take!

Special Note:Don’t expect me to go into any length about the pretends, because I won’t. For me its only about the characters, their individual development in each episode and their interaction with each other. The central theme for me is the Centre-related story, and only when the pretends and the people Jarod meets along his travels, are important to his character development or the Centre-related-plot, I will pay attention. And more often than not you will wonder if the series’ main character might be Miss Parker and not Jarod. She of course is as important to the show as he is. Even when her scenes are only short in an ep., you might be surprised at the length I can go about it. It’s a personal thing. I was drawn into the series by her character, and I do regard her not only as very important but also as my favorite one. Go, and hate me for that. *grin*

Oh, and of course, obviously these have been written all AFTER I saw it all. So sometimes I can go ahead of the series – I will try to not do it too much though and try hard to not dwell on it a lot.

And take into account that these analysis are NOT betaed! My first language is German so please don’t mind the inevitable errors!

Review of Bloodine Part 1 & 2
(Season 2/3)



Bloodline is probably the ultimate Pretender ep. The earlier ep ‘Bank’ gets some closure because the plot immediately moves on with the set up of the previous one. (a rare thing in the series, enjoy!)

It’s an ep that says a lot about the show and a whole lot about the characters. The good thing about this one, is that it is really an ‘ensemble’ show. All the main characters have good screen time and get to ‘shine’ at what they are best known for in general. Angelo gets major attention and it’s a joy to watch his transformation from the ‘sponge’ to the real person he could have become if allowed.

Sydney is acting in his usual self. But with a little more emphasis on the fact that he likes to help, even if I sometimes wonder, how much of it is redemption.

And Broots not only shows us his skills as a computer wiz, he also gets to show how much he cares for his boss. And for a short – and very sweet – moment, she lets her guard down and reciprocates. (and it was about time for that I must say!)

Mr. Parker is, well once again hard to pinpoint down. One could feel sorry for him the second he finds out that his other child didn’t die at birth. But in the next second one starts to think of how much he had really known. And once again he fails to pay attention to his daughter.

Raines is… well still Raines. Evil as ever and possessive and power hungry as ever. The scene where he describes the intended experiment on the little boy is as cold-blooded as it is creepy.

And there is the guest character, the little boy who is supposed to be the next Pretender. Davy. Played by the wonderful and intriguing Haley Joel Osment. This kid is a very talented young actor, playing it wonderfully. Davy is a child facing an awful fate. In his subdued state of being drugged, he is completely believable. And the scene where Angelo plays a tune on the piano and Davy gets up and sits beside him, is heartbreakingly beautiful.

It’s incredible what Andrea Parker the actress, can do with Miss Parker, the character, with her eyes only. Her look does speak volumes, and in several moments in this ep. we witness this. We see all the pain and sorrow Miss Parker feels at finding out she had a twin, changing later to utter horror but also hope at the possibility, that her brother might be still out there. The same can be said about her two encounters with her father. The first time she is confronting him with she had never been told that she had a twin who died at birth. When Daddy P. tries in his usual way to ‘make it up’ she refuses. With tears in her eyes that show all her disappointment and a deep feeling of loss, she tells him she would rather search for his grave alone.

The second confrontation starts out with her anger. Determined to finally hear some truth, she presents her father with the fact that her brother might be still alive. Again, a kaleidoscope of emotions are simply portrayed with her eyes. Anger, shock, bold accusation and also a fleeting shadow of hope, that he might have not known after all, are visible within a few seconds.

Jarod of course stays the center of focus throughout the whole story. And again I have to say that this double episode is showing us the Jarod in all his capabilities, with all his talents but also all his sorrow. His search for his family, for his roots, his hatred for what the Centre has done to him and is about to do to Davy. When he walks into the cottage his parent’s used to live in, we feel for him, we hurt for him.

A classic moment for me was, when Jarod pretended to be the teacher in Davy’s class to find out what child was the new target for the Centre. When he sees Jeffrey, the already suspect research-assistant from NuGenesis arriving at school, his concern for the child’s safety grows tenfold, only to subside a few moments later when Jeffrey apparently finds his own daughter and brings her her lunchbox. The fear in Jarod’s face immediately gets replaced by utter relieve and joy at watching father and daughter hugging. As I said, a classic Jarod-moment for me in this ep.

And of course there are Jarod and Miss Parker together! Both search for the mysterious information they had gotten from Fenigor in Bank. Both do it from their side. And they get major screen time together, which is always a joy and a too rare thing, because the two actors have incredible chemistry going on between them. Not only for a shipper! They play well off each other on every account. The moment Jarod enters the cottage where he expects only Angelo and Davy, but gets greeted my Miss P.’s 9mm is the second where one literally can feel this chemistry.

His ‘Hello to you too…. Sis’ is as funny as it is thrilling. For a few seconds the viewer gets to think of the possibility that J. is in fact her brother. And when he finally tells her that he is not, not only MP visibly sighs with relief, also the viewer will do so. And again, I don’t think that only a shipper will do so.

It ends with another great J/MP moment, when both of them appear in the bowels of the Centre to look for Fenigor. When the old man mumbles in pain that Catherine’s killer is Jarod’s father, we again are treated with a classic view into both of the antagonist’s eyes. Surprise, shock, horror. And we are left wondering if, in fact MP would be ready to catch Jarod just to take revenge. She aims and shoots but we wonder why she misses him.

It ends with a bang, literally. Sydney has decided to take action and planted a bomb. That moment is actually the only downturn and major flaw of the ep. An explosion that huge, would not leave anyone alive and still, we all know well that no major character would die.

This flaw should actually take off a point in my rating but for me it’s all about the characters and their interactions with each other. And since we got so many good moments of that here, I say ‘what the heck’ and give it five points on a five-point-scale!

It’s a winner!









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