“Pan Am” recap: Episode seven, “Truth or Dare”

Laura and Joe. Credit: ABC

Okay, I’ll say up front that I did something I try not to do and read Tom and Lorenzo’s recap of this episode before writing mine. What can I say? I love their recaps, even before I was writing about something we were both watching. I think they were pretty fair with their assessment, as I thought along similar lines. You can read what they have to say about “Truth or Dare” by clicking the link above, but let’s get started on the Moniqueblog recap:

In this episode, we aren’t really flying to anywhere, even though we are. The crew flew to pick up some Navy men who were coming home from war (the Vietnam War, I suppose, since the timeline for the war, according to Wikipedia, is from Nov. 1, 1955 to April 30, 1975). The two storylines we’ve got going in this episode deal with the sisters, Kate and Laura. Kate is dealing with the CIA wanting her to turn her boyfriend Niko into a spy to gain intelligence about the Tito Regime in Yugoslavia, and she doesn’t want to lie to Niko in order for the CIA to use him as a pawn in their big game of chess. Meanwhile, Laura is grappling simultaneously with her own mild racism and attraction to a black Navy officer Joe.

Joe. Screencap: Me

Firstly, after looking at the official recap on ABC, I read a comment that is really accurate and I’m surprised I forgot about this egregious oversight. The commenter said that they thought they missed an episode since they didn’t see the Dean/Ginny thing addressed anymore, especially since Maggie ratted Ginny out to her employer/lover, the Pan Am executive. That should still be a storyline, not something that’s resolved, since it wasn’t resolved. Dean should be in the hot seat for this. He should be fired!

Anyway, this episode was actually not bad. On the back of “The Genuine Article,” it was rather good. I should save this for my upcoming post on what Pan Am‘s doing right and what it’s doing wrong, but I have to say that the main problem of this show is that it does not deal well with prolonged storylines. For some reason, the writers are wrapping up what should be episodes-long storylines in one episode, and most of the time, they are missing what could be great stories. The Dean/Ginny story could have been a great story, especially after Maggie tells the exec about it. That could give her some more characterization as the backstabbing Alexis Carrington-type and set up a dynamic where the whole crew feels like they have to gird their loins when around her for fear of her finding out some of their other secrets–like, in this episode, Laura reveals that she took nude photos. If Maggie is the Alexis Carrington-type, she could use that since it’s against regulations for Pan Am stewardesses to take such pictures while representing the brand. More on that later. As the show stands right now, it’s almost like the show is being treated like an episodic show instead of the overarching plotline show it’s trying to be. It’s trying to be both, when it can only be one or the other. Sure, one-off things can happen in each episode, as it does for overarching plotline shows, but there has to be some kind of cohesive “bigger picture” here. There isn’t one. Perhaps this is where Steve Maeda comes in, and maybe these five episodes that were ordered will show his vision for the show. (Eventually, I’ll write a bit on him to show how his expertise has been used on other shows and see how it will help out Pan Am.)

Laura’s characterization in this episode is interesting. On the one hand, it’s nice to see her say something that’s not completely something Gidget would say, but on the other hand, we are just hearing about it. We didn’t get an episode that shows Laura growing as a person due to hanging around Maggie. It’s only implied that because she’s moved in with Maggie, she’s doing some beatnik things that she wouldn’t normally do. I’m not saying I want to see Laura naked, but from a story perspective, it would have been nice to actually see some of this development instead of just hear about it. Just hearing about it doesn’t have a big effect on the audience other than they’ve learned something in a very dry, non-engaging way. We don’t get to see Laura go through some sort of thought process. Seeing the thought progress would have been nice.

However, we do see the thought process behind her conflicting feelings concerning Joe, and that was good. We get to see her lock her door, then unlock it, then lock it again, because she’s attracted to Joe and actually entertains the thought of him coming into her room, but she’s also aware of the stereotypes-passed-off-as-truths she probably heard about black people, especially black men, and decides to lock her door (but that probably also thrills her as well. This gets more complicated than the show would ever decide to go to, but I’m glad we at least saw some allusion to those ideas that are probably going on in her head). Even without the racism part, there’s just the standard human element of fear–this is a strange man that she’s alone with. I think any person might consider locking their door when someone they don’t know is staying over, and then feel guilty that they assumed the worst. The discriminatory stuff just adds another level to what is already an uncomfortable situation in the beginning.

Laura locking herself in her room for the night. Screencap: Me

Also good–which is something Tom and Lorenzo were so right to point out–is that this episode took place in NYC, a place that isn’t synonymous in American (and world?) culture with being racist. New York has racism, just like Birmingham; just look at Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing. I think in the north, racism is sometimes hidden or perhaps even looked over (I say “looked over” because some people believe there’s actually no racism in the north and so they think it just can’t happen). Of course, the north didn’t have the degree of bombings and such like the south, but there’s different types of racism, all of it being bad. So for Joe to get punched for Laura holding his hand? I’d say it’s accurate. It’s good to show the other side of the racism equation.(BTW–If someone from the north wants to educate me on northern racism, feel free to leave a comment.)

It’s also good to see Laura finally coming to grips with her mental state and just deciding to forget racism altogether. Let me clarify–I don’t think she’s ever been a racist person to begin with; you can be a non-racist member of society and still hold erroneous thoughts about people from what you’ve been taught as a kid. I think she’s one of those people–basically, she’s just naive. This situation with Joe has allowed her to grow some as a person. Did he need to have his shirt off while she was pouring her heart out? No. That, coupled with her still having her clothes on, gave it shades of “black brute/black exoticism” in my eyes, and we didn’t need to go there. I guess you could say his shirt was off because his ribs and side got hurt, but most of the damage was done to the face. But I am fully supportive of this new development in Laura’s life and I hope the Laura/Joe angle is elaborated on in future episodes. I also hope that we get to see Ted’s reaction to it so we can finally get a concrete bead on just how racist he is. In any case, Laura/Joe is a GAZILLION TIMES BETTER than Laura/Ted. Ted’s a bit of a creepy jerk-off.

Relationship! Screencap: Me

And speaking of the fight, how did it exactly end? Why does this show cut away to commercial when we need an ending for something? Like, how did Laura and Maggie get out of the Brazilian jail after Ted couldn’t get them out during “The Genuine Article”? I don’t know because we cut to another storyline or the commercial.

I’ve written all about Laura and none about Kate. I was actually less affected by Kate’s story than I was Laura, even though Kelli Garner, the actress who portrays Kate, gave great emotion in this and actually got a chance to flex her acting muscle. I felt for her in the interrogation room when she was faced with an angry Niko, but all of the pathos we got from that scene evaporated when we got to the equally emotional final goodbye in the air terminal, because they were talking in code FOR NO REASON. How come they are talking in code when Kate and Richard never talk in code and they’re out in public spaces? She even yells while talking to him at one point! To me, the “speaking in code” part went on way too long. But the ending, seeing her pull herself together, was very well done.

Kate crying in the interrogation room. Screencap: Me

Will we see Joe again? I hope so. Laura’s got his memento, so I hope so. Will we see Niko again? I hope so, too. He’s a good character. Did Joe seriously have to be from the south? That’s debatable, but I, for one, being a black person from Birmingham, am personally tired of seeing the black southern person representing black people in the 1960s. It’s almost like a black southern person has become shorthand for “black 1960s person.” I understand why–most of the sixties were defined by what went on down here in the south, so I get why a lot of shows and films have black southern people when it comes to sixties period stories. However, not all black people from the sixties were from the south, and you don’t have to use  black southerners (or southerners in general) in every racism story! In In The Heat of the Night, Virgil Tibbs lived in the north and was only in the south to visit relatives. Northern black people faced just as much junk as southern black people did. Probably varying degrees of it, since racism was extremely hardcore in the south, but northern black people had their fair share of getting angry due to unfair treatment. Of course, I’m not saying Joe can’t be from the south, but this “black southerner” thing has been done thousands of millions of times, and it’s getting cliche.

I also forgot to mention Colette. She and Dean finally had some interaction in this episode! However, I don’t think a pilot would let a stewardess fly a plane, even if he’s sitting there. She had the lives of veterans in her hands! However, there are some fathers (mine included) who put their young kids in their laps and allowed them to take the wheel of the car under their supervision. That’s still dangerous, but there you have it.

Anyway, I think my review turned out like Tom and Lorenzo said, in their review, how their review turned out–I sound harsher than I actually feel about the episode. With all of my griping, I do think this was a good episode. The show is hitting pockets of storytelling gold in spurts, but hopefully, this episode (as well as the last one) is the mark of the show finally gaining some traction.

Oh–I totally forgot about the Sanjeev Alert!

Sanjeev Alert–

Screencap: Me

The ‘Jeev was comic relief per usual, but he seemed more like a person this episode, even though he only got one line. He also got to get up from the cockpit along with Ted, something I also don’t think would be done on a plane. I’m no pilot, but I wouldn’t feel safe with everyone except the pilot in the cabin when they should be in the cockpit (with the exception of using the bathroom). Keep your butts in those seats, cockpit crew! However, it was neat to see him interact with someone as cool as Colette. Colette–look at HIM, not cardboard cutout Dean! The ‘Jeev is bound to be a million times more interesting as well as being a student of the world such as yourself! I’m projecting my own hopes onto Sanjeev’s character, but seriously, Colette. Do it. You had more chemistry with Sanjeev in this episode and you weren’t even talking to him.