S01.E03: Showdown

[thewhiteowl]

 

Carolyn and her team investigate the case of an Iraq war vet who claims to have PTSD from a past life experience during the Korean War. Carolyn reconnects with a medical school colleague turned "regression therapist.

 

[CMH1981]

Wow, Jennifer Beals acted the hell out of that scene after the car accident.  I've never seen her in anything else that I can recall, including Flashdance.  

 

I still don't know what to make of this show, but I think I will be sticking around for Beals.

[Sammich63]

I thought this show is supposed to be about afterlife experiences.  I felt like the story of the two guys had more to do with reincarnation.  I still enjoyed the episode.  I'm intrigued with the woman in the scarf who Jennifer Beals can't identify.  

[blaksheba]

Wow, Jennifer Beals acted the hell out of that scene after the car accident. 

Agreed. I usually have  this show on in the background, but that small scene caught my attention. I was impressed.

 

The "past lives" portion of the show was interesting too. Zedan's story, not so much.

[Anela]

I was afraid that they would have a twist, showing the past-life visions as something triggered by his machine. I'm glad they didn't go in that direction. 

[Clanstarling]

I thought this show is supposed to be about afterlife experiences.  I felt like the story of the two guys had more to do with reincarnation.  I still enjoyed the episode.  I'm intrigued with the woman in the scarf who Jennifer Beals can't identify.  

I can see reincarnation as part of the "after life" experience of past selves. A little further down the line, of course. I think the dying billionaire said something about it, but I don't really remember.

 

It was probably the best past life regression story I've seen. I liked the introduction of the complications in Zed's life.

Edited July 1, 2015 by clanstarling

[Netfoot]

Zed's personal situation doesn't come as such a huge surprise.  

 

I thought JB was supposed to be investigating the nature (if any) of Life After Death.  Is the idea of hypnotic regression supposed to be evidence of an afterlife?  Like, you live on as a memory in the head of some psychologically disturbed future-person?

 

Seems this show is predisposed to find for Life After Death, with support for the existence of Heaven and therefore, God.  Everything, including JB's own personal experience seems to support this.  It seems a more interesting show would have some of the cases investigated, come up against the idea.  Or at least undecided.  Yet even in the case of the dead wife's ghost vs. the brain tumor, the monitors continued to glitch after the surgery.  This sort of gives away the "ending".  (Though, of course, no "ending" will ever be an ending because there has to be another season.)

 

Edited to add a right parenthesis.

Edited July 8, 2015 by Netfoot

[sinkwriter]

 

Is the idea of hypnotic regression supposed to be evidence of an afterlife?  Like, you live on as a memory in the head of some psychologically disturbed future-person?

 

I saw it more as you keep coming back and connecting with those who mean the most to you, in different ways. (As Robin Williams' character said in the movie Dead Again, "You can come back as Bob in one life and Betty the next." *GRIN*) And you won't be free of your past lives' troubles until you find true resolution for them. The guy couldn't tell his war buddy that he loved him; that has stuck with him throughout time until he could finally come to grips with that fear holding him back. That's why he kept seeing himself as a soldier coward in his regressions; he just never made it to the real moment because he couldn't face it.

 

I'm not saying it's true or that I believe in it. I really have no idea. Just saying, that's the message I get from past life stuff.

 

I'm not sure they have a plan for what side of the fence they want to show on this program. Actually, I'm not sure it's necessary anyway (for this show to have a final statement on the matter). They present the questions and possibilities and we can believe what we want or feel is right.

 

Anyway, it made me cry, so I think they did an effective job. And Jennifer was terrific in that crash/regression sequence. Wow.

Edited July 14, 2015 by sinkwriter

[Netfoot]

I'm not sure they have a plan for what side of the fence they want to show on this program.

 

Really?  I thought it was pretty obvious which side they are coming down on.  They haven't had a negative result yet.  Even the ghostly wife that turned out to be a brain lesion wasn't allowed to rest there -- we just had to finish with some extra equipment glitching, just to show us that the conclusion about the wife is probably wrong.

 

So much so that I've almost given up on this show.  I mean, why waste my time watching all ten episodes, if it's abundantly clear where it's all going after the first three/four?

[Clanstarling]

I don't particularly care which side they come down on (it's fairly clear, I agree), I just like the stories. If the near-death experience stories are interesting enough, and the journey of the doctor and those around her are interesting enough, I'm okay with whatever path they take. The characters stories, and the experiences they are trotting out each week have been, to me, getting more interesting and intriguing.

 

I personally don't believe in life after death, yet I like stories that lean that way. Just as I like stories about time travel, immortals and other impossible/improbable things.

[Netfoot]

I don't particularly care which side they come down on .....

 

Me neither, really.  I just wish they'd leave things up in the air until a bit closer to the end of the season.  As it is, what ever case-of-the-week they give us, it's obvious from early on how it's going to work out by episode end.  Multiplied by 10 when considering the season as a whole. 

[Bruinsfan]

It seems a more interesting show would have some of the cases investigated, come up against the idea.  Or at least undecided.  Yet even in the case of the dead wife's ghost vs. the brain tumor, the monitors continued to glitch after the surgery.  This sort of gives away the "ending".

I think that still works if one assumes the electrical glitches were something unrelated to Tumor Guy's visions of his dead wife. Those disappearing once the tumor was removed seems like it weighs in on the hallucination side of things.

 

The past life regression story in this episode seemed to fall too heavily on the side of the supernatural, though. Particularly since the mutable nature of memories under hypnosis is getting a lot of play in current research - I wish they'd shown hints that the guy putting them under was subtly directing their experiences to synch up because he wanted to believe.