Cade takes over a television station in a desperate attempt to warn America about the Gua. Cain is ready to stop him, of course, but Eddie seems to be the real snake in the grass.
(U.S. premiere September 24, 2000)
Written by Chris Brancato and Albert J. Salke
Directed by Holly Dale
GUEST STARS
John Kapelos – Phil Tennant
Allison Hossack – Gwen
Adam Harrington – Rand
Doug Abrahams – Officer Cronin
Ian Robson – Hal
Miranda Frigon – Tina
Derek Morrison – Cop #2
WHAT HAPPENED
Phil Tennant used to be a serious investigative journalist. Now he’s going to be the host of his own tabloid news program, but he’s not looking forward to it.
As he complains about network interference to his assistant Gwen, suspicious figures slip into his studio. They chain the doors, rig bombs, and herd everyone else in the area into the basement.
Phil’s mood improves when he checks out his set. He used to be a crime reporter, and his first subject -- notorious serial killer
Cade Foster – intrigues him.
Suddenly, the serial killer himself bursts in shouting, "Nobody move!" He tells Phil and his crew that the exits are sealed, and shows him the bomb strapped around the chest of his partner,
Crazy Eddie. (spoilers)
ANALYSIS
The truth is out. Eddie Nambulous is the secret master of the Gua invasion.
Joshua? Cain? They’re just pawns. In fact, the whole invasion is an elaborate fake designed for one purpose: the seduction of Cade Foster.
There’s always been a smoldering homoeroticism in Cade and Eddie’s relationship. Eddie takes care of Cade, buttering up the good-looking thief's insecurities so that maybe Foster will hang around Eddie’s trailer without a shirt.
The trouble is, the invasion has taken too much of Cade’s life and attention. Eddie never reckoned that Cade would become obsessed with defeating the Gua, or that he would begin regular dalliances with Joshua/Cain.
Eddie resented the complicated understanding between Cade and Joshua. He replaced Joshua with Cain, but the Evil Replacement still threatened to take Cade’s heart and mind away.
That’s why Cade has to die. If Eddie can’t have him, nobody can -- and shooting Cade just as he’s about to share himself with the world is the perfect ending to their tortured relationship.
Or maybe not
Yes, this is a stupid explanation concocted to make "The Believers" seem more interesting. But does it make any less sense than the alternatives?
For now, let’s discard the possibility that this is all an elaborate setup. You can construct a scenario in which Cade and Eddie have decided to fake Cade’s death, but it’s a ridiculous scheme.
Cade seems to have no knowledge of Eddie’s actions, and there’s no way to retrieve his apparently dead body. More importantly, they have nothing to gain from Cade’s death: the Gua would figure out the truth as soon as Cade took action against them again, and we know from the future world of "The Aftertime" that most of the Believers would vanish into the woodwork without Cade as their leader.
Based on what we’ve seen so far, it looks like Eddie is under some form of mind control. The Gua are experts at this – we’ve seen any number of techniques that could program Eddie to assassinate Cade Foster if he becomes a serious threat.
But when have the Gua had access to Eddie? As of "All About Eddie", they had no idea who Eddie was, and while they have probably learned more from interrogating Joshua and Cade in the last few weeks, Eddie has had no on-screen contact with the Gua during those episodes.
Bad magic
Of course, there’s always the possibility that something has happened off-screen. Series creator Chris Brancato recently pulled that very stunt, letting Cade get captured as part of the setup of "Tomorrow".
It didn’t make sense then, and repeating this idea a week later with Eddie would be even worse. There are also other possibilities that don’t require Eddie to be captured – but unless we’ve seen the setup, these plot devices are just as cheap.
Episodic television drama does foreshadowing do better than any other format. It’s easy to set up character developments and plot twists weeks or months in advance, to leave the viewer saying "Aha! I should have guessed!" instead of "Where did that come from?"
That’s not what’s happening here. Watching this supposedly dramatic event is like watching a magician walk offstage and return holding a rabbit.
WHAT WE LEARN
The Gua have handy disposable mind control disks that can cause a pleasant human-sized explosion.
Cain quickly realized that his version of the Nostradamus book is a fake.
Names mentioned in The Paranoid Times have been changed to protect the people involved.
UNANSWERED QUESTIONS
Yes, Cade Foster will be back next season. But how?
Should we believe everything we’ve seen? Anything?
Will Rob LaBelle and Roger Cross get into the opening credits next year?
TUNE IN NEXT WEEK
First Wave vanishes from the SCI-FI Channel for awhile. The third season comes to the United States in January 2001 – but will fans abandon Sebastian Spence for Andromeda’s multiple-pectoral-threat of Kevin Sorbo and Keith Hamilton Cobb?
Only ratings will tell . . .
Do you watch First Wave? Let us know why (or why not, for that matter)!
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