‘The Tomorrow People’ episode 9 (midseason finale) review: The search for Stephen’s dad
“The Tomorrow People” has gone through the entire first half of its first season now, and we sit here at the finale at least feeling somewhat more confident than we did about the first few episodes of the series. The show actually reminds us a little bit at the moment of the first season of “Arrow” or “Once Upon a Time,” though maybe not on the same level of quality. We had a number of meaningless episodes to the overall story, but as we neared the fall finale, we started to get a better sense of clarity as to what the larger story was.
The great thing about Wednesday night’s episode is that there was no sort of standalone plot, and instead the focus was a little more on Stephen trying to figure out what happened to his father, and then trying to bring John back into the fold. There were many revelations here, including John’s role in “killing” Stephen’s dad, and also more of an understanding into The Founder, the even Bigger Bad to the Big Bad that is Jedikiah.
The best thing that ever happened to Mark Pellegrino’s character on the show was learning that he is in love with a Tomorrow Person. Rather than just making him some sort of mustache-twirling bad guy he now has a greater sense of depth and complication. Seeing him actually work to ensure that his love was free from Ultra was a surprising twist, and it showed that there is something that he cares for more than the destruction of this kind. But still, we wonder why he feels like he can contain every person with powers except the one that he loves, and that is somehow okay.
Stephen / Astrid shippers got a couple of nice moments in here courtesy of a party that Stephen held to try and bring some sort of common ground to his life, though it’ still clear that his heart is with Cara … who he actually convinced to try and forgive John for the sake of unifying everyone in their little underground lair. The episode ended with Stephen getting a much greater understanding of what to do with his dad after asking to be brought to the edge of death just so he could have another vision.
We still don’t know whether or not “The Tomorrow People” has it in its DNA to be a truly great show, but at least the past few episodes have taken a step up from a show that was at times impossible to watch early this season. It needs to stick with these long-term stories, and also give a little more depth to this Cara character if she is to remain interesting. We’ll keep a close eye on it this spring, since this is the time where you can really figure out if the show has found its footing. Grade: B-.
If you want to read more news on “The Tomorrow People,” just be sure to click here. We’ll have a preview soon of the second half of this season.
Photo: The CW