STITCHERS: Not As Low a Performance This Time

S1E2 “Friends in Low Places”

This week on Stitchers the team has a new crime to solve. Kirsten must stitch into the memories of Lisa Keller, a young woman who overdosed while she was at a rave.

Kirsten sits in the fish tank, waiting to be stitched into Ed Clark’s memory – only Maggie shuts it down. They have a new case: to solve the death of a young woman, Lisa Keller, who overdosed on a new drug that might hit the streets of L.A. soon. Kirsten is frustrated, but she agrees to be stitched on the condition that they continue with Ed later.

When Kirsten is stitched into the memory, she finds out that Keller was murdered. She and Cameron go into the field, once again against orders. Meanwhile, Detective Fisher continues his inquiry into Kirsten. She and Cameron decide that the next step into the investigation is to go to a rave at the location that Keller overdosed at, and they bring Camille and Linus to help investigate. They run into trouble and try to leave, but Detective Fisher stops them before they can get into the lab.

Kirsten tells him everything because she doesn’t have a filter, and they bring him back to the lab. She solves the case through stitching again and Fisher decides to become a permanent addition to the team after some encouragement from Maggie. Kirsten also finds out that Camille has been spying on her for the entirety of their relationship.

At the end of the episode, Kirsten finds out that Ed Clark’s window of being able to be stitched is up, and demands Maggie to tell her what she knows about her father. The last scene shows Cameron bringing flowers to a young woman in a hospital – Marta Rodriguez – who was the first person to be sent into someone’s memory, but didn’t make it back the same way she went in.

Using the technology Cameron has in the lab, he’s able to work with the team to create the stitching process easier for Kirsten. When she is inside the head of the recently deceased, the memory is of the girl at a rave who had just recently taken drugs. Kirsten is able to ask Cameron to turn down the music, and Linus is able to take away the effects of the drugs so she can stay clear headed. The Stitchers technology is becoming more advanced, and it will be interesting to see what the team adds to the program.

The second episode of Stitchers is considerably better than the first. The plot of this episode isn’t quite so crazy or insensible. I have a better sense of how the Stitcher team is going to work together, and I’m not quite so annoyed with Kirsten. She shows a bit of emotion in this episode, which leads me to think that the stitching is allowing her to feel emotions.

The Cameron/Kirsten interactions are still a little weird. They work great as a team because they’re both very intelligent, and they balance each other out. Kirsten is impulsive and Cameron brings her back a bit, or at least tries to, so that they can keep their jobs. Other than that, the two just don’t click. I think the writers could take a cue from the best TV teams: Felicity and Oliver, Bo and Lauren, Bones and Booth.

Bringing in a new case instead of continuing with the Clark stitching allows the team to work together and for Kirsten to develop an attachment to the program. So far, Kirsten’s only interest in the program is her father’s involvement.

The last scene of this episode makes me think that Rodriguez will be waking up from her coma soon – which might throw a wrench into the Cameron/Kirsten romance. I would welcome that with open arms, just to be clear.

So far the programs and science used in this show reminds me a lot of the science in Bones. Being able to manipulate the memory that Kirsten is inside of using software is like Angela using her holographic software to recreate the crime that they’re investigating at the time. It’s all just too good to be true.

However, with any science fiction, suspension of disbelief is needed in order to enjoy it – and Stitchers has the potential to be an interesting show.