A soldier from the future saves Cade Foster's life. She's from a world where the Gua's "second wave" -- full-scale alien invasion -- has arrived, and she wants him to come back to the future with her. Where is Cade needed more, the present or the future?
(original air date October 8, 1999)
Written by Theresa Rebeck
Directed by Mark Sobel
ADDITIONAL CREDITS
Jorgito Vargas -- Stephen Kim
Yoko Sakai -- Mrs. Kim
Kathrin Nicholson -- Lizbeth
WHAT HAPPENED
An Asian boy bursts from a Chinese restaurant, on the run from
Cade Foster, who catches him and takes a computer disk. Cade wants to know what the disk is, but the boy isn't sure -- as far as he's concerned, it's just static recorded from the radio.
Armed men charge down the street at Cade and the boy, who run. Since Cade's old enemy, the disgruntled alien overseer
Joshua, is bringing up the rear, these fellows are almost certainly Gua agents. Still carrying the disk, Cade pushes the boy into an alley and tries to draw the agents off.
He doesn't make it. The aliens get a clear shot, and Cade goes down with a bullet in his back. Joshua takes the disk, and we're left looking at Cade's dead body, face down in the street.... (more
spoilers)
WHAT WE LEARN
In Lizbeth's future, Cade's death means nobody stops the Gua from recommending the launch of the second wave of outright alien attack on humanity. Nineteen million die in the first day of their invasion. The Gua annihilate two-thirds of humanity, and enslave the rest. A small resistance of a few thousand remain free, but they rapidly lose ground in the face of the imminent "third wave" -- Armageddon itself.
In the Gua-dominated future, shrimp, fortune cookies, hot dogs, catsup, dresses and lipstick are forgotten. It is truly a grim time.
Crazy Eddie reads skating magazines when he's not being brilliant for Cade.
DANGLING PLOT THREADS
When he meets Cade in the parking lot, how does Joshua know the message was recorded on a disk? In fact, how does he know it was intercepted at all?
ANALYSIS
With Joshua on the loose and a time-traveler revealing details of what the Gua are up to in the future, "The Aftertime" has a lot of promise. Notwithstanding some plot problems, the episode lives up to that potential -- but by proving that quiet character moments can outweigh all the big revelations and explosions in James Cameron's arsenal.
Character is key here. Joshua's right when he says Cade might be a bit too predictable for his own good. By making the well-being of individuals -- Stephen, for example -- the focus of his war against the alien invasion, Cade falls right into the fatal trap the Gua had set for him.
For that matter, this policy of acting locally makes Cade far more effective in the present, where stopping the Gua may yet depend on one man being in the right place in the right time, than in the future, where they need a general capable of dealing with the big strategic picture.
There's a character moment late in the third act that relates to this. As with most cinematic time-travelers, Lizbeth has been falling in love with our present, but Cade realizes that the world he thinks of as tough is almost paradise to her. How would he survive in her much grimmer future? It's a somber thing to accept, and most television heroes aren't really capable of it.
Moments like these make this story more than just another retread of Harlan Ellison's "Soldier." Rather than simply following their own set goals, Cade, Lizbeth, Joshua and Eddie spend this episode reacting to each other, and all end up changed slightly by what they learn. Everyone gets their assumptions shaken up, especially Cade, who's more used to being the rescuer than the rescued, and Joshua, whose refusal to believe that he may turn against the Gua in the future was one of the high points of the episode.
Even the act structure and plot are more subdued than usual. Notice how the usual long fourth act and short tag become a fourth and fifth act of equal length? How about the quiet but satisfying resolution, and the way it's balanced between the last two acts?
Instead of the usual action climax, we have two moments of understanding, one between Cade and Lizbeth, the other between Cade and Joshua. There's no violence, no death, just two scenes where different people find common ground, and we in turn understand a bit more about them. It's an effective ending.
That's what happens when you let the characters drive the story. It's a welcome break from the First Wave formula, and a hint of how good this series could be every week if it focused on individuals all the time.
REALITY CHECK
Why can Eddie get Stephen's real world address from his email address, but not his name?
TUNE IN NEXT WEEK
Reruns continue. Cade finds that fame is a mixed blessing when a gang of bikers follows his example and starts hunting aliens in "The Apostles".
What do you think? Send your comments to the editor.
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