Miracles, episode 3: The Patient

[annavere]

Hospital horror. Darn. Computer voice. Double darn. That's two in a row with paralytics as a plot point and three in a row about medical miracles, but never mind the plot (which was a step down from the prior two) because I continue to be sold on the leads. Well, two of them.

The demon's nonstop snark made sense when I considered that this was written by David Greenwalt. This also meant that Alva became more endearing and Giles-like in his quirks while Evelyn was more frivolous like Cordelia, but these are not downsides. Evelyn contributing exactly nothing to the plot was a little annoying, though. Three episodes in and I've got next to nothing to go on with her. Time is a-wasting.

On the other hand, Paul continues growing on me in leaps and bounds. Well-mannered, neither forward with women nor the awkward, foot-in-mouth type - just completely earnest. It's sweet. His relationship with Raina felt very genuine, and she was well-rounded for being a single-episode love interest. I didn't find much to care about in the monster of the week plot, because that computer voice kind of ruined the potential creep factor. But I liked Raina's interactions with Paul (especially the car conversation where he was explaining how he's combing the darkness in search of light) and her being a highly corporeal ghost.

The last two minutes felt like exactly the image a show with this title would conjure up, and it teetered on the brink of sugar overdose but kept to the right side of it.

Favorite scene was between Paul and Alva. Hell of a great conversation about wishing into the void and the devil coming in wondrous guise. The dialogue was thought provoking, and Alva's theorizing was accompanied by spinning a ship's wheel which he just randomly keeps in his office, I guess. It was a fun visual metaphor and delightfully eccentric. He also has some hints of a troubled past and gorgeous eyes prone to intense staring, so I'm pretty much happy whenever he's on screen.

Comments

[killabeez]

I think that's my least favorite episode, though as you noted, it has some good things going for it. Sad to report that Evelyn does not really get a whole lot to do in many episodes. She does have one great one, and a couple where she's more part of the team.

[annavere]

Well, that's disappointing but I will adjust my expectations accordingly. I am extremely forgiving of it for having such an unintentionally short run time. As a particularly cruel thought experiment, had Highlander been cancelled after thirteen episodes, it would have ended with Band of Brothers.