Eleventh Hour: Cardiac

When three eleven year-old boys drop dead of heart-attacks, their entire small Georgia town goes all apewire. I mean, why wouldn't they? Eleven year-old boys don't usually have heart attacks. And I heard this statement said over and over. Within the first five minutes, I pretty much understood the fact that eleven year-old boys + heart attacks = out of the ordinary.

In "Cardiac," Hood and Young travel down south to dabble in CSI and House territory, while trying to discover the culprit invloved in these boys untimely demise. This episode deals less with evil scientists and refocuses the show back on "crimes of a scientific nature." I think I was so used to Fringe that I expected Eleventh to take off into the same fantastical horizons of bizarre hoodoo science. But this episode was grounded in real toxins and ailments, which managed to make both Hood and Young seem less grandiose.

Hood is still Young's responsibility, but she has been taken down a notch or two here. She doesn't act like manic guard dog that she did in "Resurrection." I recall that she flipped a police officer to the ground, pulling a gun on him, because she thought that Hood might have been in danger. At a sealed off crime scene. It gave me the impression that he was truly a hot commodity.

In "Cardiac," we lose that tension and are simply left with the feeling that he's just a really smart guy who happens to be well versed in just about everything. And Young is now the woman who stands next to him and asks "what are you thinking?"

The twists and turns certainly keep the pace flowing in "Cardiac" and just when you think you know who might be behind it all, or what the poison is, it keeps changing on you. By the end however, when the great scheme is revealed, I felt myself giving a big "okay what?" to the show. I just didn't buy it. It was simple enough, and yet nothing really led me to believe that Hood could have stumbled onto it. I know, it's the usual curse of a crimey procedural show, but I was hoping for more. I still really like Rufus Sewell as Hood. He brings a very cerebral and genial presence to the show. I hope we delve more into his supposed rebellious and harmful antics that apparently have made him a "target" in need of around the clock protection.

Grief is hard emotion to pin down too. Especially "angry grief." It was nice to see one mother cry as she discovered that her dead son had actually been recording a video diary on his computer. As if she could connect with him once more. Then there was an angry dad who was like "What are you fancy guys here to do!? Solve the mystery of my son's death! Stop meddling, god dammit!" I'm paraphrasing a bit of course, but you get the idea.

And yes, I made up the word "apewire." It's free for all to use.