Episode 2: Secrets and Lies (What, no videotapes?)

Review by KT

The ep starts with a recap of last week and coming attractions for future eps. Tonight is the night “Lucy Lawless enters the Tarzan saga” as the announcer tells us. There's a real heavy emphasis on the action scenes in the coming attractions.

Opens on a shot of New York again, near dusk or dawn on a very cloudy day. The Empire State Building once again is featured in the shot. Along with a REAL TALL building beside it that I'm presuming is the Greystoke building, out for its daily walk around Manhattan .

Switch to Jane's room. She is mooning out the window. (Emotionally mooning I mean, not physically. Jane's not that kind of girl. Yet.) Michael walks in to her room. He asks her why she's not in bed. They have an exchange about what a tough night she had last night, what with being disarmed, having a bookcase shoved on her, being blown through a wall from an explosion and staying up past her bedtime. He is very tender towards her, rubbing her arm and being supportive. Then he says, “Hey, it's freezing” and he closes and locks the window. A visual reference to him locking out Tarzan, of course. But we know that this is most definitely a case of locking the barn doors after the horses have fled. Michael puts Jane to bed. Awwwwwww.

He asks her if she needs anything. AND offers to go get it for her. What a guy! They have a “sensitive chat”. He tells her she should stop agonizing over John Clayton's death—that there was nothing she could have done to save him. Jane glances warily away so as not to let Michael see from her face that Tarzan is not dead. Michael says, “He sent you back to me.” Then he gives her a chaste kiss and departs. Again, I sure don't see much chemistry between these two. Michael has like NO passion in him. He talks in a monotone-maybe he's channeling Clint Eastwood.

Tarzan is skulking on the edge of a roof overlooking Jane's window. (Kind of like Snoopy when he pretends to be a vulture.) He hears a scream. He jumps down to Central Park where four masked men are chasing a female jogger. They capture her and one of them pulls out a knife. Tarzan leaps down from a tree. He beats up the bad guys and as they run away, they do the little comment thing, “Go.” “Go.” Get outta here!” that Xena's bad guys so often did. (Though I like the simple “Run away, run AWAY! of Xena's bad guys better.) The woman begs Tarzan not to hurt her. He says in amazement, “Hurt you?” Then police FINALLY arrive on scene and Tarzan runs up a tree. End of teaser. Indecipherable teenage angst music plays.

Scene comes up on Sarah getting dressed for work, buttoning up another of her tightly tailored blouses that emphasize her breasts. Just like all female cops wear. She stops buttoning about three buttons below the neck. I guess she likes a lot of air on her chest.

Michael is peering in the door. He's such a dear he goes to get her coffee. Once he leaves, Jane notices Tarzan sitting broodfully at the window. She gives one of the shortest smiles ever recorded on film and then looks apprehensively towards the door. She runs to the window and tells Tarzan (though she's calling him “John” now) that he has to leave-that it's dangerous for him here. Michael yells from the kitchen, “Hey Jane—coffee black, right?” John Tarzan hops manfully into the room and starts to stride for the kitchen, saying darkly, “Why is HE here.” Jane grabs his arm and stops him.

In the kitchen, Nicky and Michael are chatting about college and making fun of Jane. In the bedroom, Tarzan stands still like a statue, glaring towards the door, looking really pissed that Michael is out there. Jane tells him he has to leave until she finds a safe place for him. She pulls some clothes out of her bureau for Tarzan because, “You can't walk around New York looking like that”. (Snort—I do that all the time.) Tarzan says, “These are his”. I can't make out what Jane says in reply but she then insists again that he leave. They exchange a “deep glance” and share another near-kiss-miss before he goes. The minute he's gone, Michael opens the door. He's holding Jane's coffee.

Michael and Jane walk to work. Michael wears his badge like a necklace. Perhaps he thinks he's John Travolta strutting down the streets of New York . He tells Jane that he'll give her time to decide whether to marry him or not. Snoopy Tarzan is sitting up on the roof of a small brick building, watching them walk and brooding.

In work, Jane is on the computer, once again checking out the Claytons. We get our first glimpse of Lucy on Jane's computer screen, as we hear about the ongoing rivalry between Kathleen and Richard.

I think this is a really clever gimmick, using the internet for exposition. It's far better to have the computer get the back story in than having some poor soul having to stand around and babble as they try to “naturally” work in things people would never say to each other. Saves folks spouting lines like, “As your sister, I know that you're rich because the estate of the woman whom you impregnated when you were a high school sophomore and who then died in a car crash, becoming the inspiration for “Teen Angel” sued the railroad and got that child, my niece a fortune which you as her legal guardian now have control over, as you know and as I know, but what does that have to do with anything?” I think using the internet works far better for things like that.

Thus we find out from the internet that the three Clayton siblings shared their family fortune. When John died, his money went to John Jr. This was “just under” 6 billion dollars, so I guess that's $5,999,999,999.99 not chump (nor chimp) change by any means. The money has been put in a trust for the boy. Now he's been gone twenty years. Can't you declare someone dead after fewer years than that? Or perhaps the trust has some clause or something in it? Anyway, we find out from Jane's internet connection (unless we've already found out weeks ago from our own internet connection) that Kathleen and Richard are fighting over control of John Tarzan's trust. (I kind of like “John Tarzan”, it's like one of those two-named kids like rich people and trailer trash people have.)

We see a computer clip from “Money Beat” of Kathleen Clayton, “publishing magnate” heading into some building and gesturing to the reporters to “talk to the hand”.

Michael comes up behind Jane. The minute she “accesses” that he's behind her, she immediately clicks the link off and the police department badge screen saver comes on. BORING! No wonder people play around online at the station so much. Michael tells Jane there's been an attack in the park and she gets up to go with him to interview the “vic” as Michael calls her. Michael gives the computer screen a nasty glare. The computer screen stares back impassively.

During the interview, the vic describes her savior. Nobody reacts to the “He had long hair.” “He had a torn shirt.” But when she says, “He was barefoot”, Jane stills, licks her lips and repeats, “Barefoot?” Michael sneaks a menacing look at Jane.

The vic says about Tarzan, “He was brutal, he was out of control, wild. He was going to slaughter those guys. I'm thankful but to tell you the truth, he scared me.”

Sam opens the door and interrupts saying, “I got something” A park service employee, Mr. Kowalski was working during the attack. He saw two kids, wasted, breaking windows and laughing. He chased them but they took off. But he has identified one of them from a book of criminals they have on hand. (Wonder how old it is? Wonder if Xena's in it.) But once Mr. Kowalski leaves, Jane says she has a gut feeling that it's not them. Michael and Sam joke about how Jane never has a gut feeling. Then the boys take off to follow the “solid lead” from Mr. Kowalski. Jane stays put and makes a “shucks” face by sucking in her lips.

Street shot of one of those incredibly expensive apartment buildings across from Central Park .

Interior shot of Jane looking at a tabloid paper in a large, somewhat sterile room. Richard is featured on the front page with the headline, “Dark dealings at Greystoke” and besides his picture, “Richard Clayton accused of fraud”. Kathleen comes in. Jane says, “The Star is brutal when it comes to Greystoke.” Kathleen answers, “It better be—I'm the publisher.” Oooooooooo. Not only do we now know Kathleen's job includes producing sleazy tabloids, we also know she loves to dig at her brother Richard.

Jane tells Kathleen she's investigating Richard. Definitely catches Kathleen's attention. Jane asks her when she last saw Richard. Kathleen says, “Board meeting, six months ago. Turned into quite the screaming match. But then they always do.” Jane asks about the trust and Kathleen asks why she's asking. Jane just says it's a lot of money.

Jane tells Kathleen that she thinks Richard has found a way to control the trust and that she wants to stop him. But first she needs to know where Kathleen stands. Kathleen instead of saying “Who the hell are YOU to be asking me this and why the hell do you care what Richard does?”, instead just answers.

“I want to give it away. To charity. My father and my brother John cared about a lot more than just profit. Greystoke used to invest in people. And ideas. And then Richard took over and he changed all that. So I'm fighting for this trust. For my brother's memory. It's what he would have wanted.” Then FINALLY she asks, “Now do you mind telling me what this is all about?”

As I watched this scene, I just couldn't help it—a HUGE grin spread across my face at the vast pleasure of watching Lucy at work again. Getting to see her act in a scene that I had never seen before. AHHHHHHHHHHHH.

Jane breaks the news that Kathleen's nephew John Tarzan is alive. Kathleen's very skeptical saying he couldn't have survived 20 years in the jungle. Then she challenges Jane. “Maybe Richard lied to you. Maybe Richard put you up to this for some sick reason. You wouldn't be the first cop on his payroll. Now get out of my house.”

Jane says, “Miss Clayton, I'm telling you the truth. John's alive and he needs protection.” Kathleen just repeats, “Get out of my house.” Jane leaves. Kathleen watches her go, striking a pose with one knee bent out in front of her so that we get a good eyeful of the endless Lawless legs.

Night shot of the Chrysler Building then a quick pan down to a limousine on the street.

Cut to inside limo. Richard's head of security is on the cell phone. Clicks off and turns to tell Richard that a good source just informed him that a wild man is loose in New York . Richard shows great relief and then beams happily. He breathes out, “He's alive then. Thank God. Everything depends on him”. Commercial

Back at the police station Michael suggests to Jane that they get a pizza, wine and a Steve McQueen flick. She tells him she's too tired. When he leans in to kiss her, she slides away. He looks after her, very troubled.

As she walks home Tarzan suddenly brachiates down some scaffolding, and casually hangs there in front of Jane like he's on a jungle gym (good grief—I just realized I always thought this was called a jungle jim when I was a kid and could never figure out who jim was). Jane gives a little girly gasp. *sigh* Tarzan asks her to go with him. She hesitates, but of course she does go. Michael sees them together and charges after them. (I just realized that he still thinks Tarzan is dead.) He hits the corner and they are gone. They of course are up on the roof, back to “ Tar Beach ” again.

Tarzan squats on the edge of the roof, looking around the night lit city and says, “It's beautiful”. Jane tells him that she met his aunt and says that Kathleen might help him since she and Richard are fighting. Perhaps Tarzan could stay with Kathleen (though then he'd probably have to agree to be called John Tarzan). Tarzan says that he wants to stay with Jane. Jane says, “That's not how it works here.” Someone needs to tell Jane that not everyone lives with their sisters.

Tarzan goes off to sulk. Jane says that he could have been hurt that morning in the fight. He replies that they were hurting the vic and that “When someone needs help, I help them. Don't you?” Tarzan begins caressing her face. Jane is extremely troubled. “I'm trying to figure this out. I'm trying to help you. I have to go” and she leaves. Tarzan looks soulfully after her.

As she unlocks her apartment door, she sees that Michael is there. He asks her where she was. She lies and says she stopped because she was hungry. Michael demands that they get married now. Jane says she just can't do that, that she needs time. They fight and finally Michael says, (with just a slight glimmer of tears in his eyes”, “Forget I even asked you to marry me”. Jane begs him not to leave but he does.

Nicky hears Jane yelling after Michael and comes in and asks what happened. Jane and Nicky discuss Tarzan and Michael. Jane is VERY confused. And very analytical. Nicky says Jane always thinks too much. Jane says she'll get John somewhere safe and then never see him again.

Close shot of Michael sitting in a chair in a room, saying “I can pull a confession out of everybody. It's sort of my specialty. But with Jane I didn't. I held back. Because sometimes a lie tells more than the truth.” The camera is tracking around Michael as he talks. Michael talks about how John Clayton is dangerous to himself, to others and especially to Jane. “I can see it even if she can't. So that's why I'm here.” The camera's arc now includes Richard sitting in a chair across the room. “I can find your nephew. And I can deliver him.” Richard is silent but accepting.

At the police station, Jane and Sam watch through a glass as Michael interviews one of the Kowalski suspects. Michael lies to the guy and then gets abusive. Jane gets upset and enters the interrogation rooms and interrupts. Michael is furious. They fight over the case. Michael apologizes for his behavior the night before and promises to make it up to her.

Exterior shot of the Greystoke building. Interior shot of Kathleen (looking sharp in a little brown leather jacket) holding up a photograph and smiling at it. Richard comes in. Kathleen tells him she wants to end the anger between them. She wants them to stop fighting over the trust. They can just split it. Richard (who calls her Kate) declines. Then she tests him. She says she went to the cemetery. First she thanks him for going back to the jungle time after time until he found the remains of John, Phyllis and John Jr. And buried them. Richard does not dispute this. He just says he needs the trust money to run the company properly. Totally turns her down. And then he says in a lovely, light, friendly tone, like a mid-west matron turning away an Avon Lady, “But I appreciate you coming!” LOL.

Jane and Sam are at the crime scene in the park. Sam notices a change in Jane. He says that she's rash, following hunches. They exchange more comic partner talk. They are about to leave when Jane glances up into the trees and sees leaves violently shivering. You can see her thinking, “It's not that cold—those leaves shouldn't be shivering. Must be John Tarzan!” She tells Sam she's going to walk. He is astounded. “It's twelve blocks!”, he says in shock. (Slightly over half a mile in uptown New York .) Jane says she wants some fresh air and sends him off. Tarzan immediately jumps down from the tree. He says he can track the criminals and leads her towards them. Tarzan asks, “These men, they fight for food?” Jane says there is no reason for the attack, they just do it for fun, for the thrill of hurting people. Tarzan asks, “Why would they do that?”

Eerie music sounds and Tarzan suddenly stops as he realizes “Something's Wrong”. Jungle drums start to beat. Michael comes stomping through the park. He has betrayed Tarzan. Richard's minions come out and this time seem to have some kind of red beam stun gun that they can use from a distance. Hmmm. They stun Tarzan and then drag him off. Michael drags Jane off to his car and of course they fight again. Jane handcuffs Michael to the car and runs back to help Tarzan. Tarzan meanwhile is awake and fighting the minions. He knocks the red beam stun gun out of one guy's hands. Jane picks it up and uses it on the head of security—the one minion left standing.

Tarzan walks over to Jane and once again caresses her face. Then he hears a scream and they run and find another beat up woman. Jane calls in the crime on her radio. Tarzan stands up to take off after the muggers. Jane tells him that she called it in. “John, let the cops handle it. You don't need to do it.” And John Tarzan says, “Yes I do.” And he runs into traffic, which luckily is pretty jammed up. Just for the heck of it, he rolls over the top of a taxi cab. I wonder what language it was that the cabby cursed him out in.

Meanwhile Michael fumbles the key for the handcuffs out of his pocket, unlocks himself and heads back for Jane.

Another good scene of Tarzan leaping and somersaulting up the sides of buildings. Guy's got air! He finds the perps in a garage. They are young white guys, wearing probably prep school uniforms. He emits a low growl when he attacks them. He beats them up, of course. Then Michael comes into the garage and holds a gun on Tarzan. He runs and Michael chases him, shooting at him. Tarzan is climbing up the fire escape again. Michael wings him, shooting him in the right arm.

But he continues up to the roof. Michael runs up the fire escape steps. Tarzan disarms Michael. They fight hand to hand. Jane comes out on the roof also. She gets between the men. She can not believe that Michael shot Tarzan when he was unarmed. She goes over to Tarzan and asks if he is alright. Tarzan touches her face again. Michael is enraged by this and charges Tarzan. They roll right off the roof edge. In slow-mo yet! Jane screams, “NOOOO!”

But PSYCHE! they didn't TOTALLY fall off the roof. Tarzan is spread out on a small ledge and Michael is dangling down below him, hanging on to Tarzan's wounded arm. Tarzan's arm gets slippery with blood from his wound and Michael can't keep his grip. Tarzan yells at him, “Hold on!” But his hands slide down the slippery bloody arm and he falls to his death.

Tarzan climbs back onto the roof and stares soulfully at Jane. She is furious. I THINK she says to Tarzan, “Why did you have to fight him?” Then she sees police cars converging on Michael's body on the street. She says, “Michael was a cop. They won't care what happened—they'll kill you for this. We have to go. Now.”

Cut to a shadowed figure standing in an overlooking window watching them leave the roof. Who the heck is that? I bet we find out in some upcoming episode…

They go to Kathleen's house. They pound on the door and Kathleen opens it. John Tarzan and Kathleen stare at each other as Jane begs Kathleen to help him. Kathleen realizes this is indeed John. She tells her maid to call the doctor. Jane runs off. John Tarzan soulfully looks after her.

At the station house, Sam is interviewing Jane about Michael's death. Jane lies and says she never saw him the night before. Sam says, “Mike was my friend and I loved him too”. He swears to her that he will find out who killed Michael and will take care of him.

Teenage angst music starts. Shot of Jane staring out the window of her room into a rainy night. Cut to John Tarzan, wrapped up in a shoulder bandage and staring out the window of his room into that same rainy night. Fade to black.

Well good heavens, who expected that, that Michael would be dead by the end of episode 2? It seems strange to off a character who could have been milked for many potential conflicts and angst-filled scenes. But as I said, he sure didn't have a lot of chemistry with Jane. I'm not sure why they bothered to have such a short-lived character. From the coming attractions, it seems that Jane blames Tarzan. That if he had only “listened”, Michael would not be dead. That seems a bit off—I mean Michael tackled him and rolled them both off the roof. And because Michael had shot at Tarzan as he was swinging up the fire escape, his arm got too slippery with blood for Michael to hold onto. I think a lot more blame goes to Michael than to Tarzan.

It was a good scene when Jane saw Michael as having crossed the line from cop to bully. He's very proud of his success rate with drawing confessions out of people. She sees it as not playing fair. This is literally a good cop/bad cop pair. That would have been a fertile source of stories, the conflict between Jane and Michael. Over work and certainly over Tarzan.

The laws of the Jungle are apparently superior to the laws of the city. Tarzan doesn't understand people hurting each other just for the heck of it. He looks for a rational reason, like trying to get food. When Jane tells him to let the cops handle the problem he refuses and says, “When someone needs help, I help them.” Last week he told Jane that despite his uncle having legal control over him, it “wasn't right” that his uncle kidnapped him and imprisoned him.

I'm wondering if there'll there be a police case every week? I guess that would give them a guaranteed story generator. But that also will make the show a hybrid. Is it a story about Tarzan or is it a cop series?

The series is certainly still finding its feet. There is potential for it to go in a number of directions.

In some ways, it smells like one of those 70's soap operas like Dynasty. There are rich, powerful people, fighting over fortunes. Evil corporate lords forcing people to do what they want. People trying to kill each other over one person they both desire. Pretty people, nice clothes, limousines and huge houses. Beautiful brooding boys and women conflicted in love. And lots of talking about all of it. Lucy has made it all the way back to Marlin Bay !

And of course we also have a teenage romance movie. Just one look and Tarzan knows immediately that Jane is the one for him, despite the fact that she's already got a boyfriend. She has her doubts. But he's going to pursue her. He's a good-hearted person, sensitive, very aware of Jane's feelings, noble, brave, brooding and an outlaw. And seems to be totally smitten with Jane. Jane on the other hand is cautious and is working from her head, not her heart. She's conventional in many ways. (Hence the mumbles over the barefoot boy.)

This is not our genre

There's not a lot to be said about Kathleen yet, seeing as Lucy had only three scenes and a few minutes of exposure in this ep. I thought she did alright and as I said, I was grinning like a fool just to see her on screen again.

I'm still unconsciously surprised that Lucy's character is not more physical, that she doesn't use verbal threats and glares, nor holds weapons right in people's faces. I know I felt a little disconcerted with her reading of the “Get out of my house” line. It should have been snarled, I was thinking. Then I thought—but wait! She's not XENA. She's Kathleen. And apparently Kathleen doesn't snarl. BUT Kathleen does say things to people with an expectation that she will be obeyed, even if she speaks softly. “Get out of my house”. So quiet. So unXena. So unexpected. I'm going to enjoy watching Lucy explore and unearth Kathleen.

For Xena fans, this is not quite our genre. Girls get rescued in this one, instead of girls being the rescuers. In the first ep, we saw Jane faint into a guy's arms. She gets a bookcase toppled on her and doesn't get out by herself but stays squashed and helpless until the same guy pull her out from under it. She gets embarrassed by Tarzan's poor fashion sense in restaurants. BUT on the plus side, she does save Sam when the building is exploding all around them. In the second episode, when Tarzan is down from the red stun beam attack, she is easily blocked by a swat-team guy from getting to Tarzan to help him. And then Michael easily forces her to go back to the car. Blech. On the bright side, she does save Tarzan from the red beam stun gun and she gets him to Aunt Kathleen's when he is wounded. She is proactive, taking Tarzan's fate into her own hands and trying to find a solution to his problem. And she certainly has a big helping of courage.

I like that there are a number of female characters, Jane, Nicky, and of course Kathleen. With the various relationships and connections they have, sisters, nephew's girlfriend, boyfriend's aunt, nephew's girlfriend's sister, etc, there will be opportunities for both friendly and antagonistic interactions, dealing with the changes that Tarzan has brought into their lives.

I also like Jane's relationship with Sam. Sam respects and likes her and fully accepts her as his partner. Miquel A. Nunez is an appealing actor creating an appealing character.

Again, I have to say that I'm intrigued by how Travis moves. He REALLY goes high when he leaps. But it's with totally natural and smooth movements, unlike in Xena when the stunties were tied into harnesses and sometimes moved jerkily. Perhaps he's shot up in an Inuit blanket toss. Or even more prosaically, perhaps he's got a hidden trampoline.

The music is very non-remarkable to me. Joe Lo Duca's exceptional work on Xena just spoils you for “regular” series music. Last week after the show ended, a slide came up on a black screen that said the music was by Plumb. This week I didn't see any acknowledgements.

The photography is okay but not exceptional. I don't think this series come anywhere near creating the beautiful and compelling visuals that both X-Files and XWP created in just about every episode. And there certainly were no stirring and compelling close-ups like those two shows always used. The lighting and composition was not used to create memorable images—except for that shot of Tarzan in the very first ep, dangling from the eagle with the “Greystoke” sign in the background. I can't remember another shot that was beautiful to look at or specifically well composed. Even when they had close-ups, they didn't use the lighting to highlight the face. When Richard and his security chief are in the limo, their faces are lit from underneath which always makes people look sinister. But it was done so heavily and intrusively that it stuck out in the scene, rather than being covert and leaving you with a disquieting feeling because something's off, but you can't quite put your finger on it. There were no odd angles, no shots through say a framework of leaves or trees looking into the scene. I just didn't see any memorable visuals, nothing engaging for the mind's eye.

The shooting is also very “tight”. We have almost no long shots except for a very few showing the city streets. Most of the shots are from medium to close up. The look of the show is just very prosaic, very “common”, something you can see anywhere on the tube.

This is a very talky show--LOTS of dialogue. Hopefully as the story finishes getting set up, they'll be less talking and more showing of what's going on and how people are feeling. Xena “told” more with a look than any three or four paragraphs of dialogue.

I was also wondering if Kathleen gets any money from Greystoke? That's a good conflict there, that Kathleen wants to give the trust money away. And Richard appears to be the bad guy by wanting to invest it in the business. The business provides jobs for people. (And gives them really kewl swat-team uniforms.) But neither of them are being totally honest with each other. In their first scene together, both are lying to each other. Little lies of omission and misdirection.

Again I don't see anything really exceptional (except for me, the presence of Lawless) in this series. But I think they are trying hard and again I still think there's a lot of potential. And I shall certainly tune in to watch Lucy work.

Having said a bunch of somewhat negative stuff, I think I'll just keep my hopes up that they use a lot of Lucy. And I'll just think of Richard Clayton saying to me in that light, happy, perky style he used with Kathleen, “But I appreciate you coming”.

KT