SECOND CHANCE Allows No Admissions For A Good Episode

Episode 4 “Admissions”

So now Duval (Tim DeKay) knows the truth, even if he has a hard time accepting it. Jimmy (Robert Kazinsky) wants to make up for the harsh revelation and lost time in his previous life by going over one of Duval’s old cases that he previously dismissed.

The case seems simple enough: a black kid dying of a heroin overdose. In the past, Duval knew something was up and he asked his dad for help, but Jimmy dismissed it as a ‘simple drug deal gone bad’ (Racially biased overtones there much?). Duval mentioned the kid having no prior record and being an academic genius, but Jimmy still dismissed it, and without help, Duval could go nowhere.

Now, Jimmy looks into it again, and with Mary (Dilshad Vadsaria) and Otto (Adhir Kalyan)‘s help, he discovers that there has been a pattern of ‘genius’ kids dying of heroin overdoses. Another thing the victims all have in common they find is they all applied to Seattle University. Duval and Jimmy discover the school counselor was behind it, deluded into thinking that by killing the kids she was ‘saving’ them from ‘a harsh life’.

This episode had many things wrong with it. For example, that many kids in such a small area and a short span of time dying of heroin overdoses? Why was this not investigated? Injections take a couple of seconds, so why didn’t the kids feel the injection and try to call for help or something? How did no one see the therapist walk right up to the kids and inject them, especially with one of the children she was on a crowded stage?

Someone would have seen something. Especially in this technologically advanced society that the show implies with the existence of Lookinglass Technologies? The overall plot falls apart as soon as it starts with simple analysis, which is not good for a procedural show, especially a show only on episode 4. Not to mention, the plot falls on the tired, terrible plot of ‘Mentally ill people, especially those with DID and schizophrenia, are scary and are serial killers’. With the constant ignorance surrounding mental health in this show (previously it was Otto’s problems and now with the therapist), it shows the writers’ lack of research and creativity.

Also, the therapist’s plot soon falls apart under analysis. Her reasoning for killing the children is that she was once a piano prodigy herself, but suffered a mental breakdown after being pushed too hard by her teacher. She was institutionalized, her teacher died, and after her institutionalization and his death, she developed a second personality in the form of her teacher standing over her shoulder.

Many questions arose from her character. If the teacher pushed her into such a huge mental breakdown, why were there no investigations or statements from the teacher himself? How did she obtain the heroin? How did she obtain the job as a therapist when she obviously did not have the qualifications? (If this is the real world, then to work in mental health you must pass tests, and her blatant issues would have barred her from such a field. She’s not very subtle in hiding her second personality, as evidenced by buying him a seat at a cello concert and signing his name in guest books when he’s been deceased for years).

The breaks from the main plot to focus Duval’s family are a nice break, however. We continue to explore Gracie (Ciara Bravo)‘s obsession with her grandfather and Helen (Amanda Detmer)‘s relief at Duval’s ‘acceptance’ that his father is gone. (Which is morbidly funny, considering their father is not only alive but currently working with him and he can’t tell her). This also leads to a funny scene where Jimmy, Gracie, and Helen attempt to use an Ouija Board to ‘contact’ their grandfather/father, but it’s soon hampered by Duval’s angry disapproval. Good to know Jimmy’s taking the ‘dead man walking’ aspect in stride, though.

“Admissions” was, in my opinion, a terrible episode. The plot is overused at best and makes no sense under any observation. Hopefully the show does better next time.