Monday, January 16, 2023

RW518 - Dark Skies S01E17-18 - Sides in Darkness

 

In this weeks episode of The Dark Skies Rewatch, Cory and Tom cross the threshold to get on the air as they discuss season 1 episodes 17 & 18, Both Sides Now and To Prey in Darkness.

Both Sides Now:

Written by: Melissa Rosenberg

Directed by: James A. Contner

Original airdate: March 8, 1997


Synopsis: 

As Steele holds the Singularity in his hand, Kim demands to see her baby and to be taken back to John, but he refuses and instead gives her a vision in the Singularity, telling her to go across the threshold. Kim fights back, eventually awakening from the trance. 


Elsewhere, a month has passed and John is desperate to find Kim. As he interrogates a Hive agent, knocking him to the ground and screaming at him, the agent slowly starts to lift John’s gun unnoticed, so Albano shoots the agent dead and takes Loengard to see Bach. 


Bach informs Loengard that Kim has been found in Berkeley California, infiltrating a local anti war group, and that Juliet will be leading the team to try and retrieve her because Bach can’t use John in his current state. 


In Berkeley, after an encounter with a pro-war man enlisting in the army, Steele tries to show Kim that the humans just want to incite violence and that The Hive can help change all that.


Juliet arrives in town to find Kim, but John has shown up as well, explaining that if Bach really didn’t want him there, he wouldn’t have been able to come. Together they track Kim down but Juliet forcibly stops John from going after her, explaining that there are a lot of lives at stake and they need to first find out why Hive is working with anti war protesters. They end up meeting the leader of this anti war group, Jerry Rubin, who mentions he has in fact seen Kim around as well.


Bach argues with the head of the Army who informs him that the group wants him to take charge of getting rid of the anti war protestors because Vietnam is an important event to America, and that if he helps, his budget will be tripled.


John and Juliet, after talking with a young man who is unsure about where his loyalties lie in regards to war, find the Hive hideout and see them transferring what looks like cans of tear gas. After retrieving one of the cans, John goes commando and decides to try and raid the place himself in order to find Kim. Juliet returns to headquarters for backup, while Halligan and a fellow scientist study the canister. Halligan tells Juliet and Albano that the tear gas has been replaced with a Hive concoction, which ends up going off and engulfing the other scientist, melting off parts of his flesh and killing him instantly. 


Kim holds Baby Ray, refusing to give him up when the Hive nanny comes, but Steele imposes his will upon her mentally and she acquiesces. Steele tempts her again with the singularity, using  the baby as a bargaining chip, leaving Kim torn. John shows up at that moment and Steele tells her she has to choose him or the baby, to which she chooses the baby, touching the singularity as John breaks through a window and grabs her, becoming engulfed in the mental vision as well.


Steele goads Kim to go to the baby crying across the threshold, but John is there holding her back. Steele continues his persuasion, even showing her the plan to increase Majestic’s budget, citing John as a supporter of the war, and preying on her fears of what Majestic would do to her son. Kim rushes towards the Singularity as Juliet and Albano arrive and find John collapsed on the floor alone, Kim and Steele having disappeared. 


As Jerry Rubin begins his March, Hive agents begin causing problems resulting in some fights breaking out and chaos ensuing. John spots Steele ready to fire the modified tear gas and he tackles him, quickly becoming overwhelmed by Steele’s strength. Luckily, the young man John met comes to his rescue and hits Steele, knocking him out. Kim then approaches with John failing to see that her fingers have blackened, indicating she has given into the singularity completely, as she brutally attacks him. Juliet and Albano show up but Steele and Kim escape.


John later confronts Bach and theorizes that Hive is trying to stop the war so they can put Majestic out of business, but Bach says there are things beyond even his limits and that the war in Vietnam is not within his grasp to control. John finds the room and file that Steele had shown in the vision but before he can read it, Albano arrives and takes it back. John leaves, convinced of what was in the file, and changes his focus to rescuing the only thing left that matters to him now, his son.

History As We Know It:

Jerry Clyde Rubin (July 14, 1938 – November 28, 1994) was an American social activist, anti-war leader, and counterculture icon during the 1960s and 1970s. Became very rich by investing early in Apple and during the 1980s, he became a successful businessman. He is known for being one of the co-founders of the Youth International Party (YIP), whose members were referred to as Yippies. 


In the 70's a pig named Pigasus ran for office in 1968 as a way to mock the status quo. “If we can't have him in office, we can have him for breakfast.” Demanded him to be taken seriously as a candidate and given secret service protections.  


Rubin was subpoenaed by HUAC (House Committee on Un-American Activities) in Washington but instead of pleading the Fifth Amendment as was common, he entered the room dressed in a rented 18th-century American Revolutionary War uniform, proudly claiming to be a descendant of Jefferson and Paine. "Nothing is more American than revolution," he told the committee. Rubin, showing a total lack of concern or worries, lightheartedly blew soap bubbles as members of Congress questioned his Communist affiliations. He subsequently appeared before the HUAC as a bare-chested guerrilla in VietCong pajamas, with war paint and carrying a toy M-16 rifle, and later as Santa Claus.


Him and 7 others were known as the Chicago Eight, later the Chicago Seven, and were found guilty of incitement to start a riot but that was overturned on an appeal. During the trial, more antics occurred, including the 7 wearing judges robes, and then when ordered to remove them, had on police uniforms under them.


Died in 94 after being struck by a motorist and of a heart attack after that. 


Jeff Juday played Ben in this episode; he was in an earlier episode (Inhuman Nature) as an Activist as well. He appeared in a Lois and Clark episode as Eric Press.


Timothy Omundsun played Rubin. We’ve seen him in Seaquest where he played Dr Levin in four episodes of season 1, way down far on the cast list. He was King Richard in the comedy musical Galavant and had a recurring role in Psych. He continues working today with his latest role of Gregory in several episodes of This Is Us. 

To Prey in Darkness:

Written by: Brent V. Friedman & Bryce Zabel

Directed by: Thomas J. Wright

Original airdate: March 15, 1997


Synopsis: 

John, despondent after recent events, sits in his apartment alone, a complete mess, until Juliet shows up to shake him out of his stupor for a meeting that Bach has called. Upon arrival they discover that recorded tapes of the Roswell Incident have been tampered with and stolen with Bach’s orders to find and retrieve them at any cost. 


John finds Hertzog who reveals that he was fired because of his and John’s closeness, and thinking John was dead, tries to do something to honor what he stood for, in this case, stealing proof of the aliens. Hertzog is disappointed that John still works for Majestic but John explains the situation about his son. John makes the “smart” choice and waits outside the house with Juliet while he gives Hertzog an hour to get ready to leave, only to surprisingly find Hertzog hanging and dead when he goes to check on him. 


Bach and Albano listen to a recording of game show host Dorothy Kilgallen interviewing Jack Ruby and getting some answers but nothing super substantial. They learn that Hertzog has the missing film, but are uneasy with Loengard and Juliet bringing it in to them and send Albano along.


Kilgallen goes to a friend of hers in the television business, Ed Hawkins, and offers him the story of what happened to JFK, along with the instructions that if anything happens to her, to use a key she gives him that opens a locker that contains a signed affidavit and the film Hertzog took. 


John and Juliet get to Kilgallen and they arrange a sit down meeting after the taping of her game show, unfortunately she doesn’t give in to their questions at their meeting, revealing nothing. Upon returning home, Steele attacks her, and when she awakens, forcing her to drink heavily, until she passes out and dies. John, Juliet, and Albano arrive too late and they begin cleaning the place up to make it look like a suicide so they arent implicated but John runs off trying to find Steele, seeing him jump into a car with Kim driving away. 


Hawkins shows up to Dorothy’s place and is shocked to see her dead. Later he reviews the retrieved film and begins working on its release when he’s interrupted by his boss, introducing him to his new assistant Kim Sayers. Kim later searches Hawkins office but is interrupted when he returns and admonishes her for going through his things. 


Albano faces off against the television network head and Majestic board member William Paley and gets access to the newsroom for John and Juliet. They find him just as he is giving the film to a technician and Juliet holds them both at gunpoint. John turns the tables however and gets the gun away from her, telling them to run the film as he explains to her that this is bigger than him wanting to find his son. 


Meanwhile a Hive ship attacks a power plant causing a blackout in the city and enabling Juliet to grab the tape and escape from the newsroom. Albano faces off against Steele but the two agree to work together knowing that the film cannot be seen. Juliet gets attacked by Kim and the two struggle with Kim getting the upper hand. John shows up and confronts her but she hits him with the film canister and they fight with John knocking her down. He opens the film canister to see there is no film inside but just a picture of his baby as Kim escapes. 


Bach questions John about his actions but Juliet covers for him, while Albano reassures him that the Hive has the film in their possession.


John and Juliet talk about what happened  and she gets him to see that Kim chose the Hive over him. John begins going down a path thinking that nothing matters anymore while Juliet responds by kissing him passionately with John reciprocating while someone films them from afar. 

History As We Know It:

Dorothy Kilgallen (July 3, 1913 – November 8, 1965) was an investigative crime reporter, a columnist, and game show host on What’s My Line. She came second place in a race around the world using only publicly available transportation. 

She had done a series of articles about the Warren Commission and how it just didn’t fit right which led to many speculating her death from alcohol and barbiturates was NOT accidental but murder. She used the pills to help her sleep, and it’s possible she was addicted to them. 


She was the only one out of 400 journalists who was granted a private interview with Jack Ruby. 

The 1965 Blackout did happen. It was due to an increase in energy needed for heating, cooking and lighting. It tripped a sensor which was programmed incorrectly. That caused the power to overflow to other lines which then caused them to trip, eventually shutting that station down.  Then the power had to go somewhere and began traveling to other connected lines causing the widespread outages. 

Resources:

For more information on Dark Skies, please check out these great resources of information. 

Dark Skies IMDb

https://needtoknow.today

Dark Skies Wiki

There is a full playlist of Dark Skies episodes. Account is active as of Jan 2023.

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