Salvation: Seeing Red/From Russia, With Love Makes New Alliances

Photo: Ben Mark Holzberg/CBS

The back-to-back episodes of Salvation “Seeing Red/From Russia, With Love” didn’t just deal with Darius and Grace.  Those two hours definitely unveiled a lot more of this show’s plot!

What About the Children?

The way that Grace and Harris’s kids meet is a nod to the way millennials do things.  One might consider it a warning about making friends with with people you’ve never met.    Zoe Barrows (Rachel Drance) doesn’t think twice about friending the son of her mother’s boyfriend.   For her it’s all about knowing someone else whose parent has a high-pressure/high security clearance type of job.  She doesn’t think about the fact that he might not have known about the relationship and how learning it from someone else might be hurtful. ( As it turns out, he knows, although it’s because his dad told him.)   Least of all, it doesn’t occur to her that Dylan could be a hacker or into the dark web.  She’s too normal.  That’s the thing about friending people you’ve never met.  You assume everyone is “normal.”

At 18 there’s still  a lot of of not thinking things through, so Zoe’s move wasn’t surprising. Nor was it a shock to learn that Harris’s son  Dylan (André Dae Kim) was a member of the hacktivist group “Resist.”  However, the twist about Grace’s murdered friend being the founder of Resist is something I honestly didn’t see coming.  That was well-played! After all, no one knew what Edward Snowden wass up to until he revealed himself.

Less believable was the whole secret hideout of the group “Resist.”  It doesn’t fit with the decentralized idea of a world-wide hacker group.  Then again, I’m not a member of a secret hacker group, so I suppose offices could be a thing.  After all,  white hat hackers who work for companies to find weaknesses work in offices.

Liam, Jillian, and…the Family

It was a relief to see that the hype about Liam Cole (Charlie Rowe) “taking solace” in the reporter Amanda Neel (Shazi Raja) was just that.   Instead, he uses the attraction he’s aware Amanda has for him.  The kiss they share is for him  to sneakily copy all the photos on her phone.  It’s another one of those “James Bond” type moves.  (What are they teaching at MIT these days?)

When Jillian finds out about this – because at some point in the story you know she will – Liam’s gonna have some ‘plaining to do!  To be fair, Jillian had walked out on him and gone home, so technically he should be  in the clear.   That’s not the story this week though.  This week is about  Jillian’s trip home.

You Can’t Go Home Again

Jillian’s trip home was a sweet and creative storyline.  Being lied to on a monumental issues is a good reason to end a relationship.  The writers found the perfect way for her to forgive him.  They had her face the same issues he had about telling her about the possible end of the world.

When she learns that her father is remarrying her deceased mother’s best friend she’s furious!

Jillian: Mom hasn’t even been gone two years.

Dad:     I know.

Jillian: Laura was mom’s best friend.  She moved in on you like the shark from Jaws.

Her reaction to this news is informative.  It’s been a slow shift from when  we first met her.  Jillian’s been described as “magical” and of being a champion of the artists and dreamers.  The only hint that she’s not a total pollyanna she got mad about the way Darius was having all his employees searched during “The Human Strain.”  Hearing her cynically condemn Laura is actually a relief.  She was seeming to be too perfect.

What this situation also does is put her in a similar place as Liam – in a world turned upside down. For him it was first finding Sampson, then being thrust into keeping government secrets and being betrayed by his professor.   Jillian went  home to find a sense of normalcy and to unburden herself to the one person she still trusted.  Now that’s been taken away.  Again.

It doesn’t take long for Jillian to realize that if the world is going to end, how important is this thing with Laura and her Dad?  She gives them her blessing, and says they should get married – immediately.  Next though she’s faced with whether or not she tells her father about Sampson and destroys his happiness.

What is Love?  Ask Grandpa.

Just as Liam did, Jillian finds the issue to be complicated.   She’s so torn that she contacts her grandfather – the famous science-fiction writer Andrew Bartok (Kenneth Welsh).  Remember, she and her Grandfather have opposite ways of thinking.   Intellectually Bartok’s books represents cold logic and a belief that man’s instincts are not intrinsically good.  Jillian’s also described him as an awful person.    This is true desperation on her part!

Despite Grandpa being a cold logical man who doesn’t want his granddaughter trading in on his name for her writing, he apparently still has a heart.  He’s also not stupid, which is probably why he takes his time answering Jillian’s “hypothetical” question.   I don’t think for a minute he believes this is about her new book’s character having to decide if she should tell those around her that the world might be coming to an end.  It’s why when he sees Jillian with Liam, he tells her “the character” shouldn’t say anything and that she should go back with Liam.

https://youtu.be/Nz2RpPhnGCs

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