“They say that the shortest path between two points is a straight line.
But what happens if that path gets blocked? Nature finds a detour.
When two points are destined to touch and a direct connection is impossible …”
The stories of Touch weren’t the usual interactions between points “A” and points “B” this episode. Instead, it was all about triangulations, what happens with the paths between the points are blocked as noted in Jake’s opening narration above. There was never any direct line linking the players; several sets of circumstances needed to play out in order for paths to be crossed which made for a bit of a different take on the hour than usual.
Additionally, our familiar dose of plays on numbers didn’t exactly appear front and center, either. They were present, but they took a back seat to the roundabout intercommunications person to person, the so-called “triangulations” that kept cropping up.
But the concept of the triangulation didn’t come out of left field. It’s been present, in a manner or speaking, throughout the short history of Touch between Martin and Jake. And it was vividly portrayed in concept and concretely with Jake’s continuous Cat’s Cradle fiddling.
Lastly, we saw a lot of little breakthroughs in “communication” with Jake: Martin’s realization Jake was telling him Veronique was the daughter of Simrin … Clea’s realization Jake’s Cat’s Cradle figures correlated to Aster Corps … Jake “touching” the Parisian image of Veronique. But there was one I didn’t understand: Martin’s “turn” at Jake’s “offer” of repositioning the Cat’s Cradle. Maybe that was just as simple as a message of acknowledgment between the two …
… but … it did portend Clea’s immediate disclosure she was off Jake’s case at the facility. Coincidence? No … not at all. Remember:
“… the universe will always find a way.”
Notes:
- Why does Jake keep heading back to Room #6 at the facility?
- What is Sheri Strepling (Roxana Brusso, Southland) hiding from Clea about Room #6 in the facility? And really: What’s her deal anyway? I don’t believe she’s the snaggy, controlling overseer she appears to be. There’s an agenda there that’s behind more than just her unwillingness to directly answer Clea. Case in point: Her deflection of Clea’s queries about the involvement Aster Corps’ connection to the facility. *hhmmmmmmmmmmmm*
- I’m a little bit confused over the musings of the supposed custody battle Martin’s sister-in-law Abigail Kelsey is pushing: What, exactly, makes her think she can possibly get anywhere with that … or, for that matter, do any better job than Martin can under the circumstances?
- One more tidbit about Aster Corps: What does “aster” mean anyway? Nothing. But the word “astir” can translate to “aware”, “alert” or “on the lookout” which, again, leads me to wonder what Abigail’s deal could be …
- Hey … remember the color of Jake’s string he was Cat’s Cradling with? (No fair cheating, peeking at the above photo! Answer the question, first!) It was a nice, bright red, the color of warning and attraction to get Martin’s attention and Clea’s attention. That wasn’t done on a whim, folks.
- I thought it was a mighty big stretch Martin found the obstetrician at JFK when he went looking for him. I found it an even larger stretch the police appeared to have arrested him given the circumstances. I mean, that was some pretty convincing and quick delivery of story to get the police to bag him … don’t you think?
- Seriously? A ham radio — even as an experiment — in a spacesuit? I don’t know enough about this to intelligently comment on whether it’s plausible.
- Anyone catch the name of the hotel Nundu worked at? “Hotel Trio.” More triangulations.
- The discovery of Teller’s clandestine room with all his research was put on the back burner. I was under the impression, based on the last episode, we’d get into that a bit.
- Just for fun: Anyone see how much money was in the triangular-tiled fountain Ipolita tossed her penny in? I didn’t find any correlations there, thinking there might be a little Easter egg tucked away.
Photo Credit: FOX
Some posts that may be related to this:
I think I’ve found some errors in this episode concerning the triangulation numbers of the isosceles triangle. I described it in detail on tv.com forums here:
https://www.tv.com/shows/touch/forums/official-discussion-thread-zone-of-exclusion-spoilers-101211-3356132/#4
Is it possible that the creators introduced these errors consciously? Because this is a huge blooper which lowers their esteem severely :-/
Oh, and as to the red color of the strings Jake’s playing: Notice that the same red color is used throughout all the episodes to mark up the connections between the people who has to meet. This is a continuation of the idea from the very first episode, where Jake is saying about a Chinese legend about a red string which connects all the people on the planet.