The Cape: "Dice" - Step down, Tom Wheeler!

I have, for reasons unknown, decided to stick with The Cape, time permitting. So a review of the fifth episode, after the jump... 

I am proponent of the creator-scripted episode. Most of the time, creators are the one with the clearest vision of the show, and this usually results in their episodes being among the best, the most concise statements of what their show brings to the TV landscape. The Cape, however, is proving to be the exception that proves the rule, and I hereby humbly ask that Tom Wheeler step down as showrunner. After making small strides in improvement over the past two weeks, this week saw a dip in quality, back towards the awfulness of the two hours premiere.

The largest problem tonight was Mena Suvari, whose performance as a bugfuck crazy savant threatened to derail the entire episode. (Between this and the Psych season finale, I'm beginning to think that TV producers everywhere see Suvari as the go-to actress for crazy chick roles. Please stop.) Now I get that someone that smart could conceivably go insane; it makes sense. What doesn't make sense it that we are supposed to believe that someone who say things as crazy as Dice did could also be able to create such devious, meticulous revenge scenarios. We have two different villainous traits fighting for supremacy, and it just doesn't work. Dice was not a person, she was a plot device whose actions were determined by the needs of the episode.

The other looming problem was the helping of awkward sexual tension piled on throughout the hour. First we had Fleming and Dice, which was weird because a) why would Flemming be attracted to someone who is trying to kill him and b) isn't it just a bit (okay, very) creepy that he's attracted to a girl he first met when she was like 12? Apart from this, Dice seemed to be attracted to The Cape because he was an unknown variable (or something) which only added to her distractingly crazy nature. And then Vince had the scene with the tightrope walker in which the word “hips” was mentioned about five too many times. When coupled with the antagonistic, obviously-being-set-up-for-future-romance relationship with Orwell, I doubt that Vince's love for his wife will go untainted before he returns to her. (If that's even in the works at this point; something tells me Tom Wheeler hasn't thought that far ahead.)

And then, of course, some of the show's recurring problems have reared their heads once again. After last week, Vince's relationship with the carnies should have been altered. And yet, here he was, collecting and destroying their police files (as well as his own) and then using their assistance on his latest deed of do-goodery. There was a point, near the top of the hour, where Vince began to wonder what effect these people were having on his sense of morality. While I like the idea of this, a) it is too early to introduce such a plot and b) it is obvious that it won't matter anyways, as some of the carnies are part of the main cast. We are going to keep seeing them, and they are more than likely going to keep helping Vince, so why bother going down an ultimately pointless road?

I actually found the Trip/Dana storyline to be the least offensive subplot of the hour, for the most part anyways. After we saw Vince creeping outside their window (seriously, this is borderline stalking at this point), we were treated to a few scenes in which the show examines, really for the first time, how their loss had affected the mother-son dynamic. While I don't buy that Dana would be that weepy (it been a month, at some point the tears have to stop), it was nice to see the show try its hand at some emotional honesty.

But I suppose I should end with a brief discussion on the two stupid, stupid twists this hour brought us. The first was the idea that Chess is somehow a personality separate form that of Peter Fleming. Despite this being a way for the show to keep James Frain after the Chess plotline is over with, the larger problem is that it abscond Fleming of any moral culpability, and that keeps us from hating him as a villain. And what good is the hero/villain dynamic if you have sympathy for the villain. While not as stupid, the idea that Vince getting the cape is somehow “written in the stars” is not only way out there for the show's “mythology” but it just seems like one more plotline to add to an already overfull plate.

What did everybody else think? 

Additional Thoughts: 

“I watched my family eating without me, suffering without me.” Egocentric much?

Did we really need the flashback, with the extra scenes added? Not only are those events still in recent memory, but the extra scenes don't tell us anything we don't already know.

Can't we find better things for Elliot Gould to do?

“I didn't see you coming. That's a turn-on. It reminds me I'm not God.” WTF?

“Yes, I killed your father. How can we get past that?” Just stupid lines all over the place tonight.

Apparently Palm City has a closed circuit camera system to rival London's.

Are we actually going to meet The White Hand in the show's “reality”? Because that sounds stupid enough to be entertaining.