"Haunted, episode 1x07: Three Hour Tour" Staring: Matthew Fox, Russell Hornsby, John Mann, Michael Irby, Lynn Collins Guest staring: Jessalyn Gilsig, Mark Hoppus; Abigail Mavity, Eddie Cahill Previously on Haunted. Frank’s son died. Simon also died and has been stalking Frank ever since. Jess told Frank about that sense of dread she’s been having lately, possibly due to the fact that Simon may or may not have threatened to come after her. And given the previouslies so far in this series it’s entire possible that none of this will actually have anything to do with this episode in particular. Somebody is going to have to explain to me why the title of this episode is a “Gilligan’s Island” reference. Is it supposed to be funny or does it just seem that way in hindsight? We open with Frank and Marcus playing a basketball game with a bunch of people we’ve never seen before and will likely never see again. Frank and Marcus are clearly the best players here and spend most of the time passing the ball only to each other and high fiving. Frank goes to retrieve the ball at one point and sees Jess on a date in the park with some guy who’s face we only see fleeting glimpses of. Let’s just save some time here and say it’s Eddie Cahill – better known now as Det. Flack on CSI: NY. Mark Snow plunks away dejectedly on a piano while Frank gawks like he can’t believe Jess is finally moving on with someone younger and prettier than him. Okay, maybe just younger. Don’t hurt me. Marcus wanders over to figure out what’s taking Frank so long. “I haven’t seen her smile like that in a long time,” Frank moans. Marcus glowers at Jess giggling and holding hands with Eddie and tries to coax Frank back into the game. Jess finally looks up and sees Frank staring at her and the new boyfriend and, thankfully, has enough sense to act embarrassed at accidentally flaunting her new boytoy in front of her ex-husband. Frank decides he’s had enough of the game and tells Marcus he’ll call him later. Marcus says yeah, sure, and continues to glare at Jess like “I will deal with you later, bitch.” Hee. Frank is driving around when Jess calls. He ignores it and shoves the cell phone in the glove compartment. Still bitter, huh? For some reason he’s driving deep into the backwater mountain region outside of Los Angeles. He passes a sign that says “Angeles Creek” and has a random flashback to when Kevin was a baby. Jess finds him staring at the sleeping baby and they have a conversation wherein they debate what he’ll be when he grows up. This is completely pointless hindsight whose only purpose is to generate angst. Thankfully, Frank is distracted from this wallowing in self pity when Jessalyn Gilsig – otherwise known as FireMommy from Heroes - suddenly appears in the middle of the road. He swerves around her and goes right off the road, flipping down a hill a few times before somehow managing to land upright. Lots of broken glass and steam. Aaaannnd credits. Night. The car is still sitting exactly where it landed. Before we find out if Frank is still alive inside it (I think it’s a safe bet), we take a moment to watch Eddie drop Jess off at her car and kiss her goodnight. She whips out her cell phone to call Frank again. She leaves a message on his voicemail. She wants to talk and she’s going to wait for him at his apartment. Okay? Yeah. Unfortunately, Frank is limping through the forest away from the car and his phone so I’m thinking he’s not gonna call you back. He finds a little farm house, knocks on the front door and passes out on the porch. A little girl opens the door, an old fashioned lantern in hand, and calls for her parents. Sometime later he’s laying on a bed inside and the little girl is still staring at him. “What do you suppose happened,” she asks, enunciating each word carefully. Her hick-looking father says it looks like he was in an accident. She puts the lantern *really* close to his face and wonders aloud who he is. Well, you’ll never find out if you set him on fire now, will you? FireMommy guiltily asks how badly he’s hurt. Dad says his ankle certainly doesn’t look good. “He shouldn’t be here, Elise,” he says cryptically. Elise asks what they’re supposed to do about it. Dad just stomps out. Frank’s apartment. Gus runs to greet Jess like “yay! Somebody who’ll love me!” A ghost with very heavy breathing follows her from room to room. She finds a pack of Turkish cigarettes on the coffee table and asks Gus if Daddy is smoking again. Gus cocks his head like “why is that weird man who can walk through walls looking at Mommy like that?” Jess sits on the couch and picks up a copy of the “Raceday Journal” and continues to ramble about Frank rediscovering all of his old bad habits. Gus jumps on the couch next to her and stares at some spot across the room anxiously. Something crashes and he barks and darts off. “Frank,” Jess calls cluelessly. She follows Gus, who is sticking his head in the dark bedroom and barking furiously. She turns on the light, looks around at the apparently empty room, tells Gus there’s no one there and shuts the door. “What the hell is wrong with these people,” Gus thinks, frustrated. “I keep trying to warn them about the scary looking people and they tell me to shut up! What the hell do they want?!” Back in the farmhouse, Frank wakes up to the little girl dabbing his forehead with a cloth, as directed by Elsie. He tries to sit up and from the corner Elsie says he probably doesn’t want to move yet because his ankle is really messed up. He looks at her pointedly and asks if anyone ever told her to look both ways before crossing the road. She wasn’t crossing. She was very pointedly standing there, staring you down. This should be a clue, Frank. Strangely, he winks at the little girl, who tries not to smile and fails miserably. Then he finally thinks to ask where he is. The little girl says it’s their cabin and introduces herself as Cathy Martin. She adds “I helped put you into bed. My dad says you’re a big sucker.” Huh, funny. Marcus says the same thing. I mean, uh... Elsie scolds her gently and Frank just chuckles. Here’s a tip, Cathy: you can get away with saying something like that to a man but God help you if you say it to a woman. Trust me. I speak from experience (not that I’ve said them. Let’s just say the fact that someone is unresponsive doesn’t always mean they can’t hear you). Dad comes in looking for an update. Elsie says she thinks the ankle might be fractured. Then she introduces “Tim” to Frank. Frank thanks him for all the help and reaches to shake his hand. Tim pointedly ignores the hand and says people drive too fast on that road. Frank blinks and pulls his hand back like “oooookaaaayy.” They herd Cathy from the room so Frank can “get some rest”. He closes his eyes and replays the look on Jess’ face while she was with Eddie in the park. Some indeterminate amount of time passes and he starts hearing rhythmic squeaking and creaking coming from the room directly above him. It sounds absolutely nothing like bedsprings, but that’s the conclusion he draws anyway. “Great,” he mutters. Frank’s apartment. Jess’ phone rings. She answers but there’s nothing on the other end but heavy breathing. Ah. One of *those* calls. She hangs up. Frank’s desk phone rings. She answers that. More heavy breathing. Man, he really can’t take no for an answer. She hangs up, jots a little note on a piece of paper and walks out the door just as the desk chair starts swiveling all by itself. Gus barks at the chair. Jess realizes she forgot about him (something these characters seem very prone to doing) and takes him with her. She leaves the note stuck to the door: “Frank, please call me Jess!” Yeah. The punctuation is a bit screwy, but the sentiment is more or less there. I guess a post-it was too small to write “Frank, your apartment is scary as hell and some pervert keeps calling to pant in my ear. PS – I have Gus.” Cabin. Elsie is directing Cathy in making a pot of old- fashioned oat meal. Blargh. Frank pokes his head out of the bedroom just in time to see Elsie go over to the fireplace behind Cathy, pick up a flaming log with her bare hand and shove it back in. Lest we not think this is odd, Mark Snow cues some hollow whistling notes of “Surprise! She’s Dead!” Frank slips back into the room and pretends to hobble out again, making loud throat clearing noises this time. Cathy cheerfully greets him and asks if he wants oatmeal. No. He smiles and says only if she’ll make it. Elsie asks if the pain is bad. He says that depends on whether or not she has some good drugs on hand. She apologetically says Tim doesn’t believe in medicine. Great. I bet Cathy is homeschooled too. Frank staggers, holds out his hand and asks Elsie to give him a hand here. She backs up and does an impression of a skittish colt while admonishing that he shouldn’t even be out of bed. He frowns and tries a different angle: can he use their phone to call somebody to pick him up? “I’m worried about my dog.” Liar. “We don’t got a phone,” Cathy says. Elsie corrects her grammar. Yeah, definitely homeschooled. Cathy half pays attention and asks what kind of dog Frank has. Frank says he’s a mutt with magical abilities that transform him from a medium-sized dog to an 80 pound dog overnight. He turns back to Elsie. What about a car? He can drive himself... Elsie says they have a truck but it’s not working. Tim is trying to fix it, but he’s a carpenter (his workshop is in the shed out back) so what does he know about cars? Frank limps over and sees the blurry specter of Tim heading their way. Elsie sidles up next to him to see what he’s looking at and just catches Tim resolving into solid form. “Please go back to your room,” she whispers frantically. “Whatever you do, don’t let Tim know what you saw or your life will be in danger.” Meanwhile, Jess is sitting on the stairs in the hall next to Frank’s apartment. Marcus arrives. She apologizes for hauling him out on a Saturday. He says she sounded upset. She says she’s worried since Frank didn’t come home last night. Marcus does not wonder why she would bother keeping such close tabs on her ex-husband (guilt, maybe?), and just pointedly says she hasn’t seen him since the *park* huh? She thinks he’s avoiding her because he doesn’t want to admit that it hurt to see her making goopy eyes at another guy. “I could see it in his eyes.” “Oh, get over yourself, girl,” Marcus doesn’t say. She says she called his cell and land line all night and didn’t get an answer and now...she wants Marcus to see this. They step in the apartment (all the lights are on, naturally. I would seriously love to see his electric bill) and Marcus immediately notes that it’s freezing. “The air conditioning must be stuck.” He checks it and to no one’s surprise but his realizes that the thing isn’t even on. Yep, just natural ectoplasmic chill. Jess moans that Frank would never leave Gus alone overnight without telling someone. Would he? That assumes facts not in evidence so far. She shows Marcus the coffee table where the ashtray is full of smoked Turkish cigarettes she swears weren’t there last night. Proving that Marcus knows Frank better than his ex-wife, he says with absolute certainty that Frank doesn’t smoke. He calls Frank’s cell and leaves a message. Meanwhile, Simon (we never see a face, but I assume Simon is the only ghost who would permanently camp in Frank’s apartment) hovers near Jess and looks her up and down, lingering uncomfortably long on her ass and panting. Dude. First you watch Frank sleep, then you ogle his ex-wife. Are you having trouble picking teams or are you an equal opportunity pervert? She’s having some sort of conversation with Marcus about where Frank might be and whether he would have left any clues anywhere. Then she notices the picture she gave him a couple episodes back in a broken frame. Kevin’s eyes appear to have been ripped out. “What the hell’s goin’ on here,” Marcus murmurs. Cabin. Frank is prodding at his side like maybe now he thinks he has a case of appendicitis on top of everything. Not likely since he’s poking the wrong side, but who knows. Cathy sticks her head in, holds up a deck of cards and asks if he wants to play Go Fish. What, she doesn’t know Five Card Draw? The parents start arguing from somewhere upstairs. Cathy ignores it, plops on the bed and holds the cards out. Frank hesitates a moment and looks very relieved when he reaches to take them and confirms that she is not a ghost like her parents. He asks where her room is. She says down the hall and she’s not allowed to go in her parents room. Particularly after they’ve had a few drinks and Mommy’s hands start wandering under the table. Just kidding. Frank asks why. She says adults need their privacy in this voice like “duh, Frank, GOD.” But, she whispers, she knows where the key is: in the cupboard in the kitchen. Brilliant, dear. Why don’t you also tell him where they hide the house keys and the combination to the family safe? I mean, it would be one thing if he was wearing a badge, but he just wandered in off the street and barely identified himself. Anyway. Frank asks if she has any fives. He would. She whines that it’s *her* turn and then does the same thing my employers daughter always does to me: feign innocence and ask if he has any fives. The argument upstairs gets louder for a moment and Cathy says Dad doesn’t like visitors. Frank asks if she has any friends out here in Nowheresville. Other than Mom? No. She squints at him and says Mom always lets her win, but he’s not doing that right? He says no, absolutely not, with the same expression he would probably use if she asked whether the Tooth Fairy is real. In the continuing vein of overshare Cathy says Mom doesn’t play with her as much anymore because she has to rest a lot. Frank wonders why. Cathy thinks maybe it has to do with all the things she’s been teaching her, like how to drive a car even though her feet barely reach the pedals, “in case I have to do it myself someday.” She makes Frank promise not to tell because Dad doesn’t know Mom’s teaching her these things. A door slams and Cathy jumps up, saying she’d better go because she’s not supposed to be talking to him. She pauses at the door and asks what a “godsend” is. Frank can’t really describe it apparently, but assures it’s a good thing. Why? “That’s what my mom called you.” Oy. Go ahead. Inflate his ego. Sure. She warns him not to peek at her cards (kind of difficult when you LEAVE THEM FACE UP SPREAD OUT ON THE BED) and ducks out. The creaking noises upstairs start again. Jess is calling Dante. He doesn’t know where Frank is either (duh). Marcus is checking Frank’s schedule and notes he only had one appointment today: some guy with the CBI. No, I don’t think he has any connection to Patrick Jane. Jess frowns. “Canadian Bureau of Investigation?” Yes, it seems perfectly logical, when you live and work in Los Angeles, to assume that the “C” stands for “Canada”. Oh, wait, according to Marcus that’s actually right. Weird. Jess’ phone rings and she answers eagerly, her face falling a little when she realizes it’s just her new boyfriend. She apologetically turns him down for dinner tonight as she has to frantically search for her missing ex. Anyone wanna take bets on how long this relationship will last? I give it two episodes, max. She joins Marcus in the kitchen, who has just pulled a bottle of water from the fridge and asks if there’s anything stronger in there. He chuckles and hands her a beer while cryptically noting that “it must be hard. Learning to live again when you felt like dying.” She just wants Frank to be okay with her moving on. Good luck. He asks if she’s okay with it. She nods unconvincingly. He kisses her cheek sweetly and says “for what it’s worth, that’s my okay.” Screw Frank, I’d rather have this guy. Or at the very least, this guy screwing Frank. Whatever. He assures her that if Frank doesn’t show up by morning he’ll run a trace on his cards. And file a missing persons report, right Marcus? Hello? 24 hours? He could be lying in a gutter with an open stab wound for all you know, shouldn’t you be organizing a search party? Meanwhile, Marcus would like to get the hell out of this freakshow apartment. Jess grabs Gus and they scoot out while a shadow moves along the wall in the next room. Night. Frank wakes to the creaking sound again. He decides he can’t take it anymore, lights the lantern and hobbles into the kitchen to find the parent’s bedroom key. Did I mention it’s storming outside? Yeah. Go back to bed, Frank. No good can come of this. He takes a second to make sure Cathy’s fast asleep and hops awkwardly up the stairs. The creaking is coming from a rocking chair, moving back and forth all by itself. It stops suddenly as Frank opens the door. He limps over to the bed to find the bodies of both parents decomposed to the point of barely recognizable. I already mentioned this in a tangent on my “Lost” episode recap but it bears repeating: while I’ll buy that Cathy wouldn’t realize something was going on I don’t really see how FRANK didn’t notice the OVERWHELMING STENCH of two DECOMPOSING BODIES by now. Then again, he is a bumbling idiot. Which is probably why he backs right into ghost Tim wielding a club and gets whacked over the head and dragged back to his room. I take a little break and come back to see Tim’s hands tying Frank’s wrists (much too tightly) to the headboard. I take a minute to verify that I haven’t accidentally switched files (not that I have any bondage porn saved on my computer but you never know what some of those spammers might send you in the mail). Frank is just starting to come around. “What’s the safeword, Sawyer?” he mutters. Oh, like you didn’t know I was going there. Please. Realizing that I have the ultimate slash joke opportunity staring me in the face here, I roll up my sleeves and resume play. Tim stands back and watches for a minute as Frank writhes and groans and tugs at the ties. Faced with the millions of possibilities this image conjures, my brain suffers a sudden violent overload and I pass out. I wake up a couple hours later, retrieve an ice pack for the bump that formed when I hit my head on the floor, try to write a couple pages of Jack/Sawyer porn and resign myself to the fact that this whole ultimate slash joke thing just isn’t going to happen and I should just move on with the scene. “Some people should mind their own business,” Tim says softly. “How long has it been, Tim,” Frank pants. Uh.....I know I’m not really all that familiar with S&M, but shouldn’t Tim be the one asking that? How long have they been dead, he clarifies. Tim says it doesn’t matter. Frank thinks it does seeing as Cathy is running out of food and can’t chop firewood when it starts getting cold. Luckily they live in Southern California so the odds of her freezing to death are pretty small. Tim stubbornly says they can take care of her. Then he sighs and leans in real close to Frank, who leans back as far as he can like “dude? I’m really not that into you.” “If you tell my daughter about this,” Tim whispers menacingly. “I’ll kill you.” And you think keeping him tied to a bed is going to keep him from telling her? Gee, I would think maybe she would, you know, get suspicious and wonder why her daddy would TIE A STRANGER TO A BED. Frank just pants in his face until he has what looks like a mild seizure and starts to disappear. He staggers out the door, disappearing entirely on the way. Frank looks around the room and says “Elise, I know you can hear me.” Oh, look who’s finally getting smart. Elise apparates in a dark corner and says she never meant for this to happen. Frank argues that this is exactly what she wanted, which is why she was out in the middle of the road waiting for somebody who could see her to drive by. She starts crying and says she has to go because if Tim catches her talking to him... Frank begs her to untie him. Yes, because *that* would go over better. She backs into the corner, apologizing all the way, and disappears. Frank tugs on the bindings a little more and whines. What I wouldn’t give for Marcus to suddenly divine his location and walk in on this. If you’ll excuse me, I have to go play with Jack and Sawyer for a while. Morning. Marcus tells Jess he just ran Frank’s card record and the last purchase was at a little gas station along the freeway headed into the woods. Good thing he didn’t have a full tank before he drove off and got himself lost, huh? Jess says okay, let’s go and this is probably the shortest scene I have recapped on this show so far. Bless them. Tim comes down the stairs to find Elsie teaching Cathy how to stoke the fire. Cathy runs off to clean herself up and Tim asks how Frank’s doing. Elsie says other than the fact that he was moaning for somebody named “Marcus” in his sleep...just kidding. She asks how Tim thinks he’s doing. Tim says he wants her and Cathy to stay out of there. And ignore any weird noises they might hear coming from the room. Um...yeah, I meant that to sound more menacing than dirty. Guess that failed. “Just leave him be.” Elsie starts following his train of thought and asks how long they’re supposed to do that. Tim just stares and Elsie freaks out, realizing he intends to just let Frank die of dehydration in there. He snarls at her to please, for once, just do what he says. Um, it sounds like that’s all she’s ever done Mr. Spousal Abuse. He asks if she really wants Frank to take Cathy away. Elsie says they don’t have a choice anymore. They’re miles from everywhere and she’s running out of food. “How many times do I have to tell you we are still a family,” he snarls. “There is no reason for her to leave.” Aside from all the ones that have been given so far? “We’ll be here to help.” He stomps off as Elsie’s ectoplasmic wheels turn. Jess and Marcus are on the road when Marcus gets a call from highway patrol. We don’t hear what it’s about or why he’s only getting this news now. Frank is counting cracks in the ceiling and trying not to think about how much his nose itches when Elsie slips in. “You have to get out of here. Now,” she breathes. Frank proves he’s still a dumbass by reminding her that he has to take Cathy with him. You couldn’t wait to say that until after she untied you? You’re secretly enjoying this, aren’t you? Elsie hesitates. Frank says that’s what she brought him here for, right? He says if he’s going to help her she’ll have to trust him. She opens and closes her mouth a few times dumbly. “How long has it been,” he repeats. DOES IT MATTER?! She says seven weeks ago. Frank asks why Cathy can still see them. All that reading on ghosts and you haven’t figured that out yet, Frank? Kids, pets and crazy people are always seeing shit that normal jaded adults can’t. Sheesh. Elsie says as much. Frank asks how they died. Seriously, Frank, you’re tied to a bed and under threat of death from a crazed ghost. Is now really a good time to have a chat with his wife? Elsie says it was Carbon Monoxide from the wood stove in their room. I guess it dissipated before it reached Cathy then. Elsie pulls up a chair and rambles about how easy it was to die – like going to sleep. Only when they got up they realized their bodies were still on the bed. “But you already know what that’s like, don’t you?” Frank frowns stupidly. “How did you know?” She reiterates what Dante has basically always said: that once the light from “the other side” touches a person it stays with them and Frank is like a big ole beacon shining in the dark. “You couldn’t hide from the dead if you tried.” “Okay, great, can you untie me now,” Frank asks. Oh, wait. No he doesn’t. Instead he makes an observation that the room gets colder every time Tim materializes. OH FUCKING HELL, FRANK. You really don’t need to act as exposition fairy to the people in the audience who have never seen a ghost story in their ENTIRE LIVES. Get her to untie you and MOVE ON. Blah blah absorb energy blah blah need to rest frequently. She then plays the good little battered wife – making excuses for her husband’s behavior. He’s just upset, he can’t stand that they left Cathy alone! It’s perfectly natural that he’d react to that situation by clubbing a stranger over the head and threatening to kill him! Frank says yeah, yeah, parenting angst. You know he’s wrong, right? Cathy is better off with the living now. Elise sniffles back a couple tears, nods, and moves to untie him (finally!). And we see a shadow moving behind the curtained window behind her but neither Frank nor Elise see it. Ominous woosh aaaaannnndddd... commercial break. What? Fade back and Elise is coming down the stairs to find Frank standing at the window. What the hell just happened? Did the continuity guy fall off the wagon and get stoned off his ass before this episode was finished? Elise is having second thoughts. She can’t abandon Cathy because Cathy would never understand. Frank – with more patience than usual – says she can explain everything to Cathy. Elise protests that then Cathy would stop being able to see them. Frank says yeah, whatever, but at least then she would know what happened and be able to move on. He gets a few tears in his eyes as he adds that she’s been given a rare opportunity to say goodbye to her loved ones The writers give themselves a pat on the back for managing to make all of the required references to Kevin subtle in this episode. Sort of. Frank says he needs the truck out there – even if he has to go through Tim to get it. “Show her,” he urges before he leaves. “It’s the only way.” Actually, I’m sure it’s not the *only* way, but whatever. Marcus and Jess have finally found Frank’s wrecked car. I’m sure it’s totally my imagination that Marcus is more frantic about this than Jess. Yeah. Just my warped slasher brain at work. Jess notes that he was hurt since there’s blood on the steering wheel. Oh, right. Did I mention he has a gash on his forehead? Sorry. Jess wonders where he could possibly have gone because there’s nothing for miles. Marcus, meanwhile, finds a trail out of the car and starts following it. Cabin. Cathy finds Elsie packing a suitcase and sniffling. She asks what’s wrong. Elsie says nothing, no, nothing’s wrong. ‘I have some news for you, but here, pack this suitcase full of clothes first.’ Yeah, she’s ten. She can’t be that dumb – homeschooling notwithstanding. “Where are we going? Mom, why are you sad?” Elsie wipes her eyes and plasters a fake smile and insists these are really happy tears. “Frank is gonna take you to the city with him. You’ve always wanted to see the big city, haven’t you?” Cathy, naturally, wonders why mommy and daddy would not be coming on this trip. Elsie’s lips quiver and her eyes shine with big fat tears as she promises that they’ll be right behind her. Cathy shrieks that she’s not going anywhere without them and daddy said she shouldn’t go anywhere with Frank, period. Yeah, didn’t plan on Tim beating you to the punch there, did you? Outside, Frank is limping over to the shed, favoring the exact opposite leg he’s been favoring the rest of this episode. What’s worse: it’s his right leg. How, exactly, is he supposed to work the gas pedal on the truck? Fuck it. He pokes his head in the shed and doesn’t find Tim. So he hobbles over to the truck – which is an ugly old Ford with a bad Christmas-themed paintjob – and quickly determines that he can’t get it to start. He slams the hood to reveal a very pissed looking Tim, holding an axe like a baseball bat. Tim chases Frank into the shed, taking a couple of swings Frank barely manages to duck. “You will never take my daughter away from me,” he pauses to say. Frank – looking nowhere near as afraid as any sane person on the wrong end of an axe should – barks that she deserves to have a life, damnit. Tim runs at him, axe above his head, and disappears just before he can embed it in Frank’s face. Frank gasps and pants and starts to relax and then there’s a wooshing sound and it looks like the shelving he’s leaning on comes crashing down, taking him with it. He looks up as Tim reapparates, axe raised. And then Tim brings the axe down, blood sprays everywhere and this show ends forever. Just checking to see if anyone is still reading this. Ahem. Actually, Tim is interrupted (naturally) by Cathy screaming. He drops the axe and runs for the house. Cathy is standing at the foot of her parents’ bed, gaping at the rotting corpses and sobbing. “What does this mean,” she asks Elsie. Come on kid, you’re supposed to be smart. Tim arrives and dejectedly asks Elsie why she did this. Elsie repeats Frank’s “it was the only way” and adds “we have to let her live her life.” The goodbyes that follow are painful to watch and not in a good way. The dialogue is clunky and the little girl – while cute – is not the most emotive of child actors. The parents disappear and she runs into Frank’s arms. Matthew Fox barely rescues this disaster of a scene before Marcus and Jess arrive. Wow. Who knew Marcus was such a good tracker? Too bad he didn’t get here before Frank was untied from the bed. I would have paid to see *that* conversation. Frank picks Cathy up and limps down the stairs. Um, she can walk. There’s really no need to cripple yourself further here by putting another fifty pounds of weight on your ankle. Jess asks if Frank’s okay. Frank says yeah, he’s fine. And then everybody just stands back and watches him carry Cathy to the car, not one of them offering to help. What the hell people? And back in the parents’ room, the rocking chair starts rocking again. Yeah. I feel like I just witnessed a train wreck. I think I’ll just move on to the next episode and forget this ever happened.