Second Chance 1.02 “One More Notch”

Another mostly solid episode, with the story focusing on the established premise, and pushing at the edges of the world Second Chance has set up. It’s sci-fi storytelling 101, but with a cast that mixes beauty with potboiler experience, it’s hardly a chore to sit through. Jimmy Pritchard was kind of a bastard, a poor father, a pretty decent grandfather, an awful husband, a wheeler and dealer in shadowy city politics, and a walking gray area when it came to a moral code.

Which explains a bit why his son is such a stickler for rules and order. And maybe why he’s a Duval, and not a Jimmy (or a James, as the new body seems to want to be called). Daughter Helen takes more after their father than Duval does, and so he’s that kind of character that Tim Dekay does so well, the frazzled good guy who knows exactly what’s going on, but can’t really do too much about it other than complain.

Well, he doesn’t know enough yet. The show isn’t playing too hard on everyone seeing something that reminds them of Jimmy in the new young James body provided by the Lookingglass program. The focus is more on James realizing his new abilities and limits, and trying to integrate his new reality with aspects of his old life. Thus the recreation of his apartment in the Goodwin Twins’ luxury glass mansion. And the fact they give him a retro sports car to drive, and a smart fabric track suit that allows them to monitor his health.

James is taking all of this almost too well, but I can believe it. His age and illness had kept him from accomplishing much of what he still wanted to do, or even defending himself when he was kidnapped by thugs and thrown from the bridge. So suddenly he has a young, energetic, muscular, super-strong body and it just puts him in an automatically good mood. He doesn’t really consider the consequences of all his actions, but the Jimmy played by Philip Baker Hall didn’t seem to do so in the past, either.

The plot contrivance this week relates to his “rebirth.” The most Frankenstein-ish aspect of which was the crackle of electricity that brought him back to life in the nutrient tank. Apparently that power surge drained the city grid, leading to a blackout and prison riot from which two men escaped. Followers of some zealot cult they joined in jail, they start leaving bodies behind. And not only does James feel responsible for this, but so does Mary, and she serves as his back-up and support (not that hard with the Twins’ masterful privacy-destroying technology) while he goes looking for the killers.

Her brother offers a different explanation though. Though he seems rather high-functioning autistic in some ways, he thinks he’s reading love for their new creation in her facial expressions. And since his only goal is using James’ blood to save her life, he’s worried about it.

We’ve seen James break walls, and this week he jumps over the car and into the path of another one, but he walks away with minor damage from the crash. He needs to return to the vat periodically, but while he’s fresh the body is a godsend for him. We’ve got a kind of superhero story here, a postmodern multi-million dollar man. I’m guessing the next thing we’re going to need is a super-foe. So far, he and Mary have overcome most obstacles.