by Raven Kross:
The River: “A Better Man”
Original Air Date (ABC): Tuesday, February 21, 2012
Season 1 Episode 4
The show begins with some footage from Emmet’s tapes from about 6 months previous. Emmet and a cameraman named Jonas Beckett come out onto the deck to find that vines have grown all around the ship, anchoring it in place. They begin to hack at the vines. They manage to clear the rudder, but when they turn back around, the vines have grown back in full.
The Man Who Sticks His Neck Out Usually Gets It Cut Off
Several crew members are frustrated because they have no new leads and they’re wasting resources by wandering into uncharted areas. There also seems to be some confusion as to who’s the leader- Tess considers herself captain of the ship, while some would say Clark is the one making the big decisions, and others that Emmet is still the undisputed leader.
While Kurt makes dinner, Lincoln gets out his guitar and he and Lena sing a cheery little duet. It’s all a rather cozy scene- but wait! Jahel drops the vegetables she’s holding and gasps. Everyone looks up to see a man hanging from a noose at the water’s edge. It’s Jonas Beckett. There’s no decay- must be recent. Suddenly, he cries out and begins to writhe in pain. The Captain shoots the rope tethering him to the trees, causing him to fall into the river. The crew jumps out and carry him onto the ship. Lincoln determines that he has malaria and a slew of injuries. They have to stabilize him or he’ll die in hours, if not minutes.
Her Name Alone Sounds Like Sweaty, Raw Hammock Sex
Next you see some clips of Beckett, including a personal interview where he tells the interviewer about his many injuries and shows off his scars. From what we’ve gathered of Jonas, he acts more like a cocky party guy than a nature show cameraman.
The man’s cell phone holds a ton of GPS coordinates. Tess reasons that if he was with Emmet, then those coordinates could lead them to him. When Clark questions the validity of her hypothesis, she points out that they’re out of leads anyway. Meanwhile, Lincoln looks for a way to treat Beckett’s malaria, and he is reluctant to accept advice from the Captain.
AJ and Clark try to find information about Jonas on the tapes. They discover footage of he and Emmet in a cave, looking at some unusual drawings on the wall. Then it switches to Jonas filming an Amazonian funeral rite. Emmet chastises him for being disrespectful to the dead, but as soon as he takes the camera and leaves, Jonas whips out his phone and continues filming.
In the navigation room, Lincoln and Tess argue about their course. If they turn around and go to get medical help, they’d lose a week of travel time, but if they don’t, Jonas will die. Finally Tess agrees to get help for Jonas.
Their conversation is interrupted when a bloody smear appears on the window. They go down to the deck to investigate and find a dead bird. Suddenly, birds start raining down all around them, and they rush back inside. When the coast is clear, they go back outside and have a look around. Guess they won’t be turning around now.
Death Means Dignity, Not Ambition
In the camera room, Clark reviews footage from earlier in the day, when Jahel and Emilio were arguing in Spanish in the engine room. He slows down the tape and goes back, trying to make out something Jahel is saying. She says, “El Coldago.” When he questions her about it, he learns that El Colgado, “The Hanging Man”, is a tale made to teach children not to steal. (Funny how everything they’ve come up against has to do with a children’s story.) If you steal, you will hang forever. They have to get Jonas off the ship or they’ll all be in trouble.
Lincoln goes back to check on Jonas and discovers that he’s disappeared. We see him in the camera room, huddling in a blanket, watching the footage of Emmet scolding him for filming the funeral rite. The tape continues to show a violent storm, and a young woman crying out that the vine has gotten her. Emmet pulls her back to safety and cries, “I warned you, Jonas!”
Beckett ejects the tape and stashes it in his pocket, then leaves discreetly. Lincoln finds him wandering the halls. Lincoln asks him what happened to him out in the jungle, but the cameraman is reluctant to discuss it. He reveals that he doesn’t remember anything about how he got to the point of hanging.
Up in the navigation room, they finish battening down the hatches in preparation for a storm. Lincoln brings Jonas up there and they question him about his time in the jungle. He finds out that he was out there for months and that Emmet and the others are missing. Tess is disappointed to hear that he doesn’t know much.
When That Girl Gets Scared, I Listen
They all go out onto the deck and watch the storm clouds. Only… wait a second… that’s not a storm cloud! That’s a swarm of insects!
Everyone rushes back in and they barricade themselves in the galley. Then the blame starts getting tossed around, and surprise, surprise- Jonas is the number one target. Clark points out that Jahel is the one who has always been right when they’re in danger, and Tess asks her why she’s so scared. She says that it’s Jonas’s fault.
Suddenly, Jonas starts spasming and collapses, spewing bloody foam. Lincoln finds a way to get him air. Tess goes to retrieve his cell phone- a tricky feet, considering she has to crack a window and reach out to get it, avoiding the bugs that have now coated the ship’s surface. Downstairs, now that Jonas is breathing properly, Jahel insists that Lincoln pick a card. “The Boiuna speaks through the cards.” He picks El Coldago.
Every time he picks a card, that’s what he gets. He becomes distressed. Jahel is filled with foreboding. Then Kurt says that he’s heard of the Hanging Man, and he tells the story.
In the camera room, Tess shows Clark a video that she found on the cell phone- the footage Jonas shot of the Amazonians. While the tape plays, we hear Kurt telling the story. He says that the man was a grave robber who stole jewels from the dead. So Death cursed him to feel the pain of dying but not the relief of death, suspended in purgatory forever. The tape shows a remote part of the jungle, the camera operator walking close to some kind of archaic statue on the ground, and a white mist rising from it. Then the screen goes blank.
All I Remember Is Pain
A clap of thunder sounds. The storm is coming closer. Jahel says that Death wants Jonas back, to make him suffer. Apparently he “stole a soul”. Clark figures out that one of the tapes had been stolen and demands Jonas give it to him. They watch it and see Emmet leaving Jonas to hang in the jungle. So… he was just hanging there the entire time?
Everyone rushes up to the navigation room and they begin to argue about whether or not they should throw Jonas off the ship. The tension about leadership that has been slowly building throughout the episode comes to a peak when Clark and Lincoln are at each other’s throats.
Tess reminds him that Jonas knows valuable information. He spills it to defend himself, saying that Emmet was obsessed with magic- something he called “The Source” (hmmm, where have we heard that before?). Once he’s told them all he knows, Tess is all for throwing him off.
Lincoln tries to defend him, even going so far as to pull a gun. But then the electricity goes out, and in the confusion, Jonas runs out of the room. He says that he can’t be responsible for any more trouble on the ship and hangs himself. His phone falls and cracks, and a strange white mist comes out. The noose snaps, and Jonas falls to the deck, alive.
You Tried To Kill Me and Now You’re Offering Me A Job?
The next day, storm over, Death appeased, the crew works to get everything back to (relatively) normal. Clark offers Jonas the position of cameraman (they’re one short, as you remember from the first episode) and he accepts.
Tess and Lincoln are looking at the tapes. They find one where Emmet speaks to them about how he loves them. He says he will always regret leaving someone behind. He apologizes and says he misses them. Aww, sad moment.
And that’s it for this episode. Stay tuned for my fifth and sixth recaps. Until then, adios!
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