“15 Years” aired on January 7, 2020
Written by: Brant Englestein & David H. Goodman
Directed by: Leslie Hope
Grade: 2 out of 5
Notice: All episode reviews contain spoilers
There are a few instances of quality acting by main-cast members Alison Tollman, Robert Bailey Jr., and guest star Enver Gjokaj, leading to pleasant scenes of synergy between Jo and Agent Brooks, as well as a few priceless reactions by Chris in response to out-of-the-left-field statements coming his way during dialogues.
These moments are, unfortunately, few and far between and cannot carry “15 Years,” an unmotivated episode that neither offers any amount of substantial character development, nor puts forth a compelling tale to advance the overriding arc in a noteworthy manner. It rather comes across like a footnote concerned with covering a period of time while moving from point A to B, except that there is no new territory conquered at the end of the day.
Nor does it help that two charismatic main characters are quasi-absent throughout the outing, except for about a minute at the very end. It is not by coincidence that the only eye-opening development of the outing occurs in those last 60 seconds, when Piper and Benny finally appear on screen and join Jo who, with some help from Brooks, has strenuously shouldered the burden of carrying the episode’s underwhelming A story. Gjokaj and Tollman squeeze the most out the run-of-the-mill search plot filled with contrivances and render it somewhat watchable thanks to their acting prowess.
The outing starts with them investigating Benny’s residence, after his disappearance during the astonishing turn of events that took place in the last ten minutes of the solid winter finale “Where You Belong.” Apparently, he closed his bank accounts and canceled his credit cards. His trail goes back only 15 years, a frustrated Brooks mutters, “it’s like he didn’t exist before then.”
Next, the episode jumps forward four weeks to paint the portrait of a family in disarray. Mia and Jo have grown despondent to say the least, although the latter is still continuing to search for Piper and investigating Benny’s background. She even calls someone at 3:10 AM without realizing the time, which is exhibit A for in-your-face over-dramatization. The Chief is also neglecting her job, but Chris the mensch, the best deputy of all times, is picking up the slack. But when it rains, it pours, so Jo learns from Brooks that he is being pulled from the case, effective immediately.
Ed and Alex, for their part, feel helpless watching their loved ones wither away emotionally, which produces a subtle-yet-inspiring narrative consisting of their efforts to be a part of the solution and how each succeeds in doing so in his own way by the end of the episode.
One evening, the TV at the house starts flickering shortly before the circuit breaker pops and the lights go out. The screen goes off, but not before displaying the same symbol that we saw back in “Pilot” on the same TV’s frazzled screen, as well as on the chip that Piper took out of her neck.
Jo takes it as a sign from Piper and investigates the power surge. The electrical company claims they have no recorded power surges for that time period. When Jo seeks Brooks’s help, he is not exactly buying the story even after she tells him about the symbol. His take is, “people sometimes see what they want to see.” He will nonetheless look into it, thanks to some humorous, verbal arm-bending by Jo. When I noted above the synergy between these two being one of this episode’s positives, this was one of the sequences in my mind.
As expected, Brooks gets results. It was not a power surge after all. The communications satellite received a signal that fried the transponder. Before the transponder died, it sent a message to Jo’s Satellite TV originating from Elk County, Pennsylvania……. or something like that. I found Chris’s “What?” reply quite fitting even to the shorter version of the above that Jo provided. The bottom line is, Jo and Brooks are flying to Pennsylvania in three hours.
Chris’s reaction to Jo designating him as the acting chief officer during her absence is priceless, as most of his reactions are to every unexpected news that his boss delivers. His first task involves going to the dock to respond to a call by Yousef (first appearance in “Camera Wheelbarrow Tiger Pillow”) who simultaneously reports a boat being docked in his slip and expresses disappointment in having to do so with Chris instead of Jo. As he walks away, a couple of men carry a crate into the ship, causing Chris’s keys attached to his belt to be pulled toward it by a strong magnetic force. He asks to see what is in the crate, but the men refuse his request, saying they are in a rush.
Chris’s curiosity is piqued and he calls Alex into his office to ask for help, except that Alex’s solution consists of boarding the boat to see it for themselves, in other words, breaking the law. Chris apprehensively agrees to the plan when Alex skillfully manipulates his feelings by reminding Chris that he is now the Chief, a position requiring him to make the tough decisions. If you are looking for an example of the concept “learning on the job,” observe Chris throughout “15 Years.”
Squeezed between these two main storylines (Alex-Chris and Jo-Brooks), is the C story with Ed and Mia back at the house. In an effort to uplift Mia, Ed joins in the search for Piper in old-school style. He wants Mia to record a message for Piper on a ham radio so that he can play it on all frequencies in a loop. Mia’s message is, “Piper, don’t be afraid. Mom is coming.” Some time later, the radio makes a screeching sound and a bunch of 0s and 1s appear on its display to form some type of binary code that Mia records on her phone’s camera.
In the meantime, Jo and Brooks are plowing ahead with great alacrity in Pennsylvania. As I noted before, the synergy between the two portrays a sound comradery, although it frequently gets distracted by one convenient plot device after another, bringing a new meaning to the expression “with great alacrity.”
Take the whole diner sequence filled with contrivances for example. As they are eating, Jo decides to show pictures of Piper and Benny to the server who, lo and behold, recognizes Benny from when she was at a gas station two nights ago. Lo and behold, the owner of the gas station named Charlie (Lucas Van Engen) also happens to be at the diner. Lo and behold, he gives suspiciously vague answers to a few pointed questions by Jo and Brooks before running away outside where a car slams into him. Lo and behold, he turns out to be an AI because his arms start glowing after the car strike. Just like that, Jo and Brooks went from having zero clue what to do in Elk County to jumping several steps ahead in their investigation and accomplished that feat in a matter of two minutes at one location! The scene ends with Charlie pushing the driver and escaping in the car.
Back at the hotel later, as Brooks is trying to wrap his head around what he saw, he warns Jo not to involve the FBI, saying that it would not end well for her or Piper. After learning that Charlie’s history only goes back 15 years, and noting that Splinter’s been active for 15 years, Jo puts two and two together and realizes that Benny’s also likely to be an AI. “How many more are there?” questions Jo, which opens the door to a bizarre scene where Jo decides they will run Piper’s exabyte disk on each other to see if they are also one because, as Jo notes, “could be anybody.”
This is a dragged-out scene that is meant to demonstrate – I think – some romantic connection between the two while each verifies if the other is a “robot.” The mood-mystery balance is off, the seemingly sensual touching of the arms comes across forced considering the task at hand, and nothing feels earned. Jo crooking her neck later, to check out Brooks from behind as he walks away, had more flirtatious vibe in one second than that whole scene had in its two-plus minutes of screen time.
Jo learns that the car Charlie drove was towed from a parking lot of an animal hospital. Jo and Brooks presume that he needed medical help and go to the location. They walk in and quickly (of course) find Charlie about to die on a table. He refuses to reveal Piper’s location, “even I wanted to, I can’t,” he murmurs before dying. Having noticed the incision in Charlie’s neck, Jo figures out that he must have been trying to take his chip out. She takes it out and puts in a container. Brooks, for his part, finds Charlie’s cell which shows his recent locations. The one location that Jo and Brooks do not recognize on the list is where they are heading next.
Once there, Jo quickly (of course) finds Benny. She holds him at gun point by an SUV, asking for Piper. After a few seconds, her gun disintegrates into pieces by itself and falls out of her hand. That is when Piper, along with Helen, joins Benny and asks Jo not to hurt him. She informs her that she needs to stay with them because they need her help. Despite the shocked Jo pleading with her to come home, Piper uses her powers to shut the garage-like door on her and drive away in the SUV with Helen and Benny. Yes, it’s confirmed. Piper has a full range of superpowers that she can now use at will.
During the above ordeal that resulted in nothing more than basically hitting the reset button on the search for Piper, the quirky duo of Alex and Chris stay busy breaking the law while providing a higher dosage of viewer-entertainment than the Jo-Brooks storyline could ever dream of doing in the process.
They board the boat in the dark and find the crate in which they discover a somewhat liquid-ish ball moving around inside a cube container (you can maybe come up with a better description). At that moment, a few guys board the boat. Chris and Alex manage to get off as it leaves the dock, but not before Chris leaves his phone on it, allowing him to track it down later.
It also makes room for a riotous sequence of classic Chris expressions, the first of which is the ‘proud look’ as he illustriously, and with a sly smile, points to the signal on the map on his computer screen and informs Alex that he left his phone on the boat to track its movement. An impressed Alex replies, “I’m going to back some of the things I said about you,” which causes Chris to now don the ‘confused look,’ another priceless expression. Dear Chris, don’t ever change, and dear Robert Bailey Jr., bravo to you, Sir!
Last-minute thoughts:
— Before leaving with Benny and Helen, Piper asks Jo to let Mia know that she is not scared, which means that Ed’s ham-radio idea worked, and she received Mia’s message. So, was she the one who sent the binary code? If so, what is its meaning?
— There is a scene early in the episode where a detective from the Bronx calls and asks Jo to confirm if a corpse matching Piper’s description that they recently found is Piper or not. Jo and Brooks look at the computer screen and Jo tells the detective that it is not Piper. The camera angles, the silence, the score, and the slow-burn acting leads me to believe that the writers intended for this scene to create some type of suspense. I felt none. Piper would obviously be useless to the show as a dead corpse.
— Benny comes across genuine when he tells Jo that he is truly sorry. I am still not sold on him being a “bad guy.” For more on this, see my review of “Where You Belong.”
— I believe there are three episodes left in the season. I presume, they will tackle larger questions such as the reason behind the AIs’ arrival/appearance 15 years ago, what their ultimate goal is, and Piper’s expected role in achieving that goal. I am also curious to see if some of the recurring characters like Helen and Agent Brooks will make it alive to the end of the season.
Until the next episode…
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