We Finally See Jake’s TOUCH
Episode 108: “Zone of Exclusion”
Ah, the plot thickens. By degrees, we’re learning more about the mysteries at Jake Bohm’s board and care facility, and the connections to people past, present, and probably future considering how this show works.
The supposedly empty Room 6 still haunts us as this week’s main connections are made. A family who didn’t know the others existed are brought together by this week’s clues. Not numbers, this time, but a pattern of diamonds and triangles found in the repetitive game of cat’s cradle that Jake’s playing.
Now both Martin Bohm and Clea Hopkins understand that there’s far more than meets the eye to what Jake’s doing, but the increasingly hateable Sheri Strepling (Clea’s boss), appears to be looking for excuses to remove Martin as his legal guardian. Additionally, the pattern of diamonds of the cat’s cradle matches the logo on evil aunt Abigail Kelsey’s business card.
If you’ve been with Touch since the beginning, you’ve seen Jake move from one simple number, 318 (the address of my childhood home, ironically), to adding numbers onto the first in a longer sequence, to geometric patterns, to clear indicators that he’s directly connected to the pain of others, even across the globe. At first it seemed that he was simply following along blindly. More and more it appears as though he’s very aware of exactly what the patterns mean.
Particularly moving were two scenes where the autistic Jake actually initiates human contact. In the first, at the science museum, he reaches up and touches a large projection screen showing visitors to another museum in Paris. A girl in a red coat is standing there, and she places her hand up to exactly where his is resting on the screen, palm to palm. Later, he looks directly into his father’s eyes. He may have glanced at him previously, but this was direct eye contact the likes of which he has never shown before, perhaps in his entire life. Martin is understandably moved, as are we. If you weren’t moved, you’re dead inside.
The web of connections this week includes an Italian man on the International Space Station whose life is saved by an old ham radio, and a long taxi ride that turns out to be very fortuitous for the driver’s entire family, including one girl in a red coat half a world away. I could get into more detail on how it all fits together, but why spoil it? Seeing it all link up at the end is half the fun.
[Official Show Site at Fox] [Previous Episode: “Noosphere Rising”]
