Life on Mars“My Maharishi Is Bigger Than Your Maharishi”
Original Air Date – Oct. 23, 2008
Tara – TwoCents Staff Writer
tara@thetwocentscorp.com
Sam's trip home gets a little more personal as he starts seeing himself as a child. This makes Sam think that he needs to find himself, literally, in order to get home. Oh, Sam.
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Life on Mars
ReplyDelete“My Maharishi Is Bigger Than Your Maharishi”
Original Air Date – Oct. 23, 2008
Tara – TwoCents Staff Writer
tara@thetwocentscorp.com
Sam's trip home gets a little more personal as he starts seeing himself as a child. This makes Sam think that he needs to find himself, literally, in order to get home. Oh, Sam.
Sanity issues aside, Sam still has a crime to solve. They find a Vietnam veteran, Bob Reeves, beaten to death in a park. Gene, who is also a veteran, is not a fan of veteran killers and he orders the team to find the killer fast. With that useful direction, the team starts working, well, all except for Annie, she's busy sniffing paper for some reason—no...really.
Realizing that Annie may have some time on her hands, Sam offers her a real policing task. He tells her to check on the victim's car. Annie is happy, but I couldn't help but notice that she doesn't let go of her paper.
Sam and Ray notify the next of kin: Bob's wife and son. She tells them that Bob was having a hard time adjusting to life back in the U.S., but that he was recently contacted by his old squad leader, which made him Bob happy. Bob's squad leader, John, tells them that the “unwelcoming committee” or the anti-war protesters were bothering Bob. Sam tries to defend their right to peaceful protest, but it's about as successful as a 1970s haircut.
Also, it seems that other veterans have been beaten in the last few weeks by the unwelcoming committee, so Ray and Sam bring in their leader for questioning. While they're listening to the leader's speech, Sam sees a little boy running off in the background. He ditches Ray and follows the illusive boy. The boy leads him to his hippie neighbor: Windy and a Maharishi. The Maharishi, who has three diamonds on his forehead, suggests that Sam's mind is creating everything. While Sam's trying to assimilate that news, Windy pops up to whisper that 1973 is the reality—the future is the delusion. She's so a figment of his imagination. Case in point, when Annie appears the next morning at his apartment, Sam makes sure she doesn't see Windy.
Annie's found an accountant's card in Bob's car. They interview the accountant and Annie pegs him as gay. This makes Sam think that Bob might have been gay too. Like his suggestion of peaceful protesting, this goes over like a lead balloon. Sam perseveres though. He finds out that other gay men have been beaten in that park and organizes a stakeout with Chris as bait. The trap works. A gang of guys try to beat up Chris only to be stopped by Sam. The only problem with this scenario? They didn't kill Bob.
After Sam describes life in prison to the thugs, one of them admits that he saw the attack. He describes a guy who limped—just like John. Gene, Ray, and Sam interrogate John in his office. It turns out that John and Bob were lovers in Vietnam. When he came back, Bob wanted their relationship to continue, but John was afraid that he'd lose everything, so he killed Bob.
Sam goes to tell Mrs. Reeves what happened, but when he sees Bob's son, he can't do it. He just tells them that John resented Bob's bravery and honor, so he killed Bob.
During the investigation, Sam sees a house with three diamonds on it. When he goes in, he finds the floorboard that used to be loose in his old house. There's a box in it, just like Sam remembered, but it's not filled with GI Joe figures. Instead, it's a photograph of a little girl with her parents. We also learn that Sam's father left on his fourth birthday and that his family moved around a lot when he was a kid. Sam decides to just live in the present...so to speak...for the moment, but just as he makes that decision, he finds himself. Or rather, he sees a 4 year old version of himself walking with his father into a Knicks game. Well, you don't see that every day.
This was an interesting episode. I'm still no closer to figuring out why Sam's actually in 1973—if he is in 1973. How about you guys? Can we rule out any of the items on the list? Or have you thought up some new theories? Let me know. Leave your Two Cents below.