The bear that traveled thousands of miles.
I wasn’t sure if a two-episode premiere of The River would be overkill for one evening. I sometimes find that two-hour premieres start off strong but by the second hour I begin to have second thoughts as to whether I would like to continue watching the show. Alcatraz is a prime example of that. Thankfully, The River kept the momentum going and added a new dimension to the storyline quickly.
The challenge is to determine where Emmet was along the Amazon prior to his disappearance. Thankfully Lena can offer some insight into this. Prior to losing contact with him Emmet informed her that he had a bug bite on his hand that wasn’t healing. They decide to go through his video recordings and determine from how the infection was progressing which would be the most recent recordings. How convenient. I must admit though I do enjoy clever writing like that. It works and they have an area to now focus on.
That night, as everyone is sleeping peacefully a dragonfly flies into Jahel’s mouth. Somehow this dragonfly is the spirit of Emmet and overtakes Jahel and goes to Tess deliver a message. Emmet’s spirit informs Tess that it’s not safe for her on the Amazon and that she has to let him go. Okay, my problem with this is that if it is Emmet’s spirit wouldn’t that mean that he is already dead, not alive and able to deliver a message via Jahel via a dragonfly. Of course this doesn’t deter Tess, if anything it only fuels her desire to continue.
Tess, Lincoln, Lena, Clark, Kurt and AJ venture into the jungle. They are forced to set up came beneath spirit trees covered in dolls, among them Lincoln’s teddy-bear from when he was a child, Marbeley. The only problem is that Lincoln threw Marbeley into the Indian Ocean when he was sixteen years old. Considering Lincoln has been to college and medical school I am assuming that was over ten years ago. No one views this as peculiar but instead Tess, blinded by her desire to find Emmet, believes that it’s a sign that Emmet was there. Lincoln does the craziest thing and removes the bear. Seriously, I don’t think I would attempt to do something like that. If you haven’t had the bear in all this time I don’t think you need him now.
Of course, the spirit isn’t happy by this and takes out his/her revenge on Tess by drowning her. Lena resolves that in order for them to get Tess back they will have to give the spirit what they want, their mother. They dig up her grave and place the skeletal remains in the water. Tess appears a few minutes later in the open grave. Creepy!
I can’t wait to see what the story with Lena really is. She seems to always know the right thing and in a flashback we see that she has a tattoo of the same emblem that Emmet gave to Lincoln as a child on a necklace. There’s something up with her and I wonder if Emmet knew who she really was and that’s why he confided in her so much.
This review originally appeared on TV Geek Army.